Walking Dead 1. 1-1: An Offer

**EPISODE 1: JOIN THE CLUB**

Sometimes, Clementine cannot believe they made it to springtime.

It's strange to her that the world still follows the seasons even when everything else has changed. The birds chirp and fly around, make nests and lay eggs like they always have. Flowers of all colors of the rainbow begin to grow again after winter's cold grip loosens, only to be crushed under the feet of wandering walkers.

Although it's now spring, the so-called rebirth of everything beautiful, Clementine still feels the chill of winter inside of her. The past season had not been so bad for her, Christa, and Omid; they had found a big house to hole up in and the most danger they had experienced was heading out on supply runs. Slowly but surely, they were making their way to the west coast; more specifically, Christa and Omid's hometown of San Francisco.

("Gotta see how Martin Van Purren is doing after all this time." Omid had told her, nudging her side and bringing a small grin to her face. Her smile was a rare occasion nowadays, but Omid had always been able to coax a few out of her with his antics.

"I still can't believe I let you name our cat that." Christa had murmured, rolling her eyes but nonetheless smiling as Omid began to list alternative names for their probably long-gone pet.)

The three months had passed in relative peace, or as much peace as was possible nowadays, and they were now back on the road, with a few pitstops along the way. Clementine feels weary as they walk through the empty streets, knowing that such silence did not ever last long, not anymore. Something _always_ has to go wrong.

Just as she and Omid are about the cross the street, Christa stops them with a wave of her hand. "I see a grocery store just down the block. If we're lucky, there might be some stuff left." Christa tells them, pointing to the building in question.

"_If_ we're lucky…" Clementine mumbles, crossing her arms over her chest as she surveys their surroundings once again. _The very definition of a ghost town._

Christa shoots her a sharp look, placing her hands on her hips, wider now from her eight-month pregnancy. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"This town seems… empty. Everyone probably took everything and left when things went bad." She shrugs her shoulders and releases a bitter laugh. "And besides, when are we ever lucky?"

"_Clementine_…" Christa sighs, massaging the bridge of her nose as if even attempting to argue was giving her a migraine. "What else are we supposed to do? We need food, and this is our best bet. Our _only _bet right now."

The girl lifts one shoulder in response, reaching behind her to grab her gun as her other hand grasps the doorknob leading into the store. With Christa and Omid surrounding her in case anything pops out, she yanks it open quickly, holding up her gun immediately after. When nothing jumps out at them, Omid is the first one to creep inside, his knife held out in front of him defensively.

Inside, the market appears to be empty of any humans or walkers, but they keep their footsteps light regardless to avoid drawing any possible attention. They form a small circle in front of one of the registers to discuss their plan of action.

"We need to stay close, but we also need to get as much stuff as we can carry without weighing ourselves down. It doesn't seem like much is leftover, but just grab whatever you can find. And make sure to check for an expiration date, we're not hungry enough to eat rotten food." Christa whispers, scanning the signs on top of each aisle quickly before looking back at Clementine and Omid. "I'll take the beverages. Omid, look through the cereals and grains for anything that could still be good. And Clem, grab as many canned foods as you can fit in your backpack. Stay in sight, okay?"

Clementine and Omid nod in confirmation and move to their respective areas of the shop. The canned foods are located in the last few aisles, many of the shelves already empty from previous looters. She shrugs off her backpack and unzips the large pocket, walking down, grabbing whatever cans she can find, and stuffing them inside carefully, so as to not squish the other belongings she has on her.

Halfway through the aisle, she spots an isolated can of beans on a lower shelf. She plops to her knees, wincing from both the sudden pain and the loud noise she make from hitting the floor. With no hesitation, she reaches out to grab the can, her fingers barely clasping around it when a bony hand clutches at her wrist.

A scream bursts from her throat before she can even attempt to hold it down. She can feel the hand bringing her wrist closer and closer to its intended destination, and when she catches a glimpse of the other side of the shelf, she sees a walker laying on the floor, its bloody jaw inches from her trapped hand.

Distantly, through her ringing ears, she can hear Christa calling out her name and hurried footsteps a few aisles down. In a burst of adrenaline, Clementine brings the can of beans down onto the walker's wrist, over and over again. It's not enough to take off the monster's hand, but it loosen its grip enough for her to wrench her arm out and scoot to the other end of the aisle.

Clementine feels her back connect with the shelf behind her, her breath coming out in hard, short puffs as she realizes how close she came to being bitten. The walker's groans grow as it begins to drag itself through the shelf, its dirty and chipped nails clawing at the floor and its jaw snapping at her in hunger. She grabs her gun from where it's tucked in the back of her pants and doesn't hesitate before aiming and shooting the creature through the forehead.

Panting heavily, she leans back and closes her eyes for just a second. When she opens them, she sees Christa and Omid standing above her, concern written all over their faces.

"What happened?! We heard a shot!" Christa asks, kneeling down beside Clementine and holding her face within her two hands, turning it from one side to the other to check for any injuries.

Clementine simply nods in the direction of the dead walker hanging half outside of the shelf, its brain matter splattered over the tiled floor. Omid interrupts Christa before she's able to comment on the girl's successful kill.

"Uh… I think we have a problem." Christa and Clementine's heads snap up in unison to stare at Omid, who is staring wide-eyed down the corridor. Next to the frozen foods section, a door thumps with the weight of what sounds like multiple bodies throwing themselves against it with all their might. _The Stockroom, _a label pasted on the door reads.

With a loud _bang_, the door snaps open and a few walkers fall out, the first few landing on the floor and settling for a crawl while the others behind them begin to make their way over to where the survivors still sat, stunned.

Clementine is up and standing in a flash, aiding Omid while they both pull a heavily pregnant Christa up from off the floor. All three of them begin running toward the door but barely take a few steps before Christa doubles over in pain, clutching at her swollen belly and crying out.

"Shit!" Omid shouts, unholstering his gun and shooting at a walker nearby. "Clem, we need to keep her covered!"

The young girl rushes over to Christa's other side, taking a few deeps breaths - _just like Lee told me _- as she fires, one by one, at the walkers attacking them. "How many are there?!" She yells out, wondering why the heck so many of them had been stuck in that room in the first place.

Before Omid can answer, the front door swings open and they hear footsteps approaching them rapidly. Unable to look away from the walkers she's shooting, Clementine senses the person stop beside her and begin shooting at the remaining walkers.

With the help of another shooter, the number of monsters dwindles until the last one they can see crumples to the floor, blood spilling from the hole in its head. Omid is quick to kneel beside Christa, asking her if she's okay and if she needs anything, but Christa just uses him as a prop to struggle up onto her feet.

Christa has her gun pointed at the stranger in a flash, her voice curt as she demands, "Put your gun _down._"

The stranger - a black, stout woman probably in her 30's or 40's - locks eyes with Christa and nods, kneeling down to drop her gun on the floor and then lifting her hands up in peace. "Don't shoot, okay?"

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Christa fires off question after question.

The woman is quick to answer, her voice calm. "My name is Tavia. I do bimonthly sweeps of the area to look for recruits-"

"Recruits? For what?" Clementine interrupts, her eyebrows furrowed.

"I'm part of a camp of survivors up north, near Virginia and North Carolina. We have plenty of food, clean water, medicine-"

"We've heard this before." Christa says, raising an eyebrow and tilting her head to the side in disbelief. "Groups aren't really our thing. Sorry." She begins to turn around, gesturing for Clementine to follow her out the door.

"Hold on a second, Christa!" Omid exclaims, grabbing his girlfriend's wrist quickly. He stares at Tavia in curiosity, a hopeful glint in his eyes. "Maybe we should just… hear her out?"

"We've survived just fine on our own these past few months." Christa says, tugging her wrist out of his grasp and crossing her arms over her chest.

"I know, I know… But what about when…?" He trails off, his eyes lowering to gaze at her stomach. Christa rests a hand on her bump, opening her mouth to retort but realizing that she had none to begin with. The same thought had been plaguing her for months, just as much as it had been worrying her companions. Months ago, when it was just her and Omid and their three-month-old baby, she hadn't been so worried about what would happen when the baby was born. In fact, part of her didn't want the baby anymore, not after witnessing how horrible this new world had become. But now, they had all come too far to lose this new life, this new bit of hope.

Tavia's voice breaks them out of their thoughts. "I get it. You don't know me from any of the other assholes you probably met in the past. But believe me when I say that we're building a real community, not like whatever places you may have come across before." Crawford springs to Clementine's mind, then. It had been an awful place, and it hadn't even lasted a few months - they had gotten what they had deserved, Christa had told her that much. "We have people of all ages in our camp, and plenty of food and medicine to keep your entire family healthy and fed. You'll all be safe there, I promise - I _swear _to you."

Clementine bites her lip, thinking over the woman's offer. It had been so long since she had seen another kid, not since… She closes her eyes, willing herself to let go of the image of Katjaa holding a pale Duck in her arms, wiping away the blood that he spat out whenever he coughed too hard. Duck had been so eager all the time, often too energetic for her to even attempt to keep up. But he had been the closest she had to a friend.

"I could give you some time to talk it out, if you'd like. I know you may not trust me, but I swear that we have a great community for you to raise your children in." Tavia continues, picking her gun up from off the floor and storing it in the back of her jeans, in front of her tucked-in blouse.

Omid turns around to face them, shrugging his shoulders and smiling hesitantly. "Maybe… vote on it?" After receiving two nods in response, he continues, his voice rising in enthusiasm. "I really think that she's telling the truth. And if they really do have all that food and protection… maybe things are starting to look up? What do you think, Clem?"

They turn to face her then, Christa's face closed off and Omid's open to her thoughts on the matter. "Well…" Clementine begins uncertainly. "I think we should go to at least check it out, right?" _And there's a lot of bad memories in Georgia_, Clementine thinks to herself, mental images of her treehouse, the motel, the pharmacy, and the train flashing through her mind.

Christa purses her lips and turns her narrowed eyes back to Tavia. "If we get there and we see something we don't like, we're leaving. And we won't let_ anything_ stop us. Understand?"

"You'll be welcomed there with open arms." The woman promises, smiling at the pregnant woman. "I don't know what you've all been through, but I swear to you that we're all just a bunch of people who are trying to get by. You have my word."

Silence lingers in the room at Tavia's heavy vow, and the three companions exchange glances before Christa nods and holsters her gun. The smile that breaks out over Omid's face is blinding. "So how are we getting there anyway?" He asks as all four of them begin to head out of the store.

Parked on the street outside is a dark blue car, the exterior and the windows streaked with dirt and grime. Tavia walks over to the driver's side, opening the door and quirking an eyebrow at them as they come to a stop on the sidewalk. "Better get inside. It's a pretty long ride."

Omid and Clementine lock eyes for for a long moment, and then simultaneously bolt for the passenger's seat. Behind them, Christa rolls her her eyes and wonders, not for the first time, how she got stuck with not just one child, but two.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Hi! This is actually my first multi-chaptered fic for TWDG and on ffnet in general ever, so I would love feedback and all that because I'm still pretty nervous about how people will enjoy it. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed, there's more to come soon. :)


	2. 1-2: Alone

_The gun slips through her fingers and clatters to the floor just seconds after the bullet escapes from it, successfully hitting its target. Clementine feels her legs give it out from underneath her, and she ends up falling to her knees, unable to take her eyes off of what - of _who _- sat in front of her._

_The man she had once known… who she had just talked to minutes ago, who had saved her more times than she could count, who had taught her so much she needed to know now in this new world of dead people and people who might as well be dead. The bullet had gone straight through his forehead. A perfect shot. Part of her thinks that he would have been proud for just how perfect it was, despite her closing her eyes at the last minute, before she could stop herself._

_Lee. Lee. _Lee_._

_"Wake up, please, wake up…" She whispers, her voice raspy from her clogged-up throat. His eyes are closed and his head droops onto his shoulder. He almost looks peaceful, if it weren't for the blood dripping down his face from the hole in his forehead._

_Clementine shuts her eyes and lowers her head, her shoulder hunching over as a sob bursts through her throat. What had she _done… _It was what he had wanted. He had told her so himself. Told her that it would be hard, but that she didn't want him to be one of _them. _What her parents had been, back on the streets outside of the Marsh House. Just monsters, shells of what they used to be, stuck roaming around with other monsters forever and ever._

_But what if there had been a way to save him? What if he was different, what if Duck was different, what if they were never even going to turn and had just gotten sick? But now…_

_Her eyes snap open as she hears loud banging noises coming from the gate where she had dragged Lee inside the jewelry store after he had passed out in the herd. She had closed it to keep them safe, and it was definitely strong enough to keep all those walkers out, but for how long?_

_The girl sighs and looks back at the corpse in front of her. Her guardian - her _former _guardian now._

_"How am I supposed to take care of myself? I don't… I don't know what to do. Lee, please… Please…" Clementine begs, needing to find some sort of answer. But his remains do not respond, his arms do not reach out to bring her into a reassuring hug._

"You're strong, Clem. You can do anything." _He had told her, what felt like moments before she had stood to point the gun between his eyes. Part of her didn't believe it. She's still a little kid, but now lonelier than ever, no adult to guide her towards the right choices._

_But there was still hope out there. As far as she knew, there were still two people out there that cared about her. Lee had said so himself. Her parents were gone, Lee was gone, and who knows what had happened to Kenny and Ben… Christa and Omid, however, were still out there. Hopefully._

_Tenderly, she reaches out and grabs Lee's hand, his only remaining hand, as a matter of fact. Ignoring the bite just above it and the handcuffs around his wrist, she squeezes his fingers and palm one last time, unable to find the words to thank him for all that he had done in such a short amount of time. Much too short, really._

_She grabs her gun from off the floor and stands up, her legs wobbly but still keeping her up regardless. Reaching into the pocket of her dress, she pulls out the keys to the exit, taking one last long look at the man handcuffed to the radiator before unlocking the door and taking off._

_She walks among the walkers for what feels like hours. Walking through the streets of Savannah, quiet so as to not draw any attention that would get her killed, she begins to feel the hope drain from her as she realizes just how overrun this city is._

_Lee was able to get them through the herd by a lucky find and sheer determination. Christa and Omid couldn't possibly know that masking yourself with the scent of walker guts could keep them safe. How was Clementine supposed to know if they were okay? If they had even made it to the train as Lee had asked them to? In fact, what if they had made it to the train but had waited so long for her to arrive that they ended up just leaving? How long had it even been since Lee had split up with them?_

_After a few more minutes of walking, she finally spots the train. Clementine is barely able to hold back the gasp that tries to escape._

_The train they had used to make it to Savannah was completely overrun and surrounded by walkers. And looking past it, even more monsters appeared to be coming from the train tracks further off. _They must have heard all the noise the train made when we first came here_, Clementine realizes. Were they the reason why Savannah was completely gone now?_

_Shaking her head, she decides to focus on what Lee advised her to do: find Christa and Omid. Clementine follows the crowd until she is finally close enough to the front of the train to grab a hold of the railing and begin to climb up._

_At least, until a hand grabs at her ankle._

_She nearly loses her grasp on the railing in her surprise. Clementine hisses through her teeth, willing herself not to panic as she kicks out madly. Her foot makes purchase with the walker's head hard enough to send it sprawling to the floor, releasing her foot in the process._

_Luckily, none of the other walkers around the train notice her as she continues climbing and opens the door to the cab. She slips inside, feeling a rush of familiarity flood her as she eyes the Engineer's seat where Kenny would normally sit as the train would fly down the tracks. It's hard for her to believe that it had barely been a few days since she had last sat in this cabin, still mourning Duck and Katjaa and Carley and Lilly but with Lee still by her side._

_Clementine exits the cab and continues making her way down through the train. She opens the door and finds herself in the freight car where she and most of the others had spent a majority of their time in. Mostly she can remember sitting down and feeling useless and terrified as Katjaa held a pale, coughing Duck in her lap during his - and her - last few hours alive._

_The car is empty._

_She doesn't even have to check the rest of the train to know that all of it empty, too. Clementine just knows that Christa and Omid aren't here. They probably never even made it as far as she did. The two of them probably just saw how doomed it was before turning around and heading somewhere else. Did they think of her when they did so? Did they promise themselves to keep looking for her, for Lee?_

_After shutting the door behind her, Clementine makes her way to the corner of the freight car, sitting down and hiding her head in her knees. Hopelessness consumes her, not for the first time and not for the last._

* * *

She's woken up by someone gently nudging her left shoulder. Clementine lifts her head from where it was leaning against the passenger's side window and blinks opens her eyes, wincing at the bright light that hits her. She moves to face Tavia, who turns off the car's engine and stuffs the keys in her jacket's front pocket.

In the backseat of the car, Christa lifts her head from where it had been resting in Omid's lap, her hand rubbing against her stomach and her eyes scanning what lay outside of the car's windows. Omid yawns and stretches as far as he can in the vehicle's limited space, mumbling, "Are we here?"

"We're here." Tavia tells him, getting out of the car and then politely opening the door on Christa's side for her.

Clementine steps out of the automobile, flashing a quick triumphant smile at Omid through his window. Omid narrows his eyes at her playfully and exits the car, patting her hat-covered head and then slinging his arm over her shoulder. "You might've won shotgun this time, but I'll get you next time!" Omid tells her mock-threateningly, but Clementine just rolls her eyes and begins to head to the other side of the car.

She glances around them briefly. The room Tavia parked in is large, with high ceilings and two red-and-white gates - probably for loading and unloading supplies. A large truck with a logo of a box with a ring around it - _Land Trek: Moving and Storage _- pasted on the back is parked to the car's right. With wonder, she realizes that there are shelves, high enough to reach the ceiling, stocked full with supplies and food.

Tavia helps Christa onto her feet and then unclips a walkie-talkie from her belt, bringing it up to her mouth and pressing the button on its side. "They're here. Do I lead 'em to the pen?"

Discomfort hits Clementine as she eyes the radio in the woman's hand, awful memories of what her own stupid walkie-talkie had caused swirling through her mind. Static fills the air for a brief second before a voice, clearly male, answers back, "_Yeah, it's almost supper time anyway. No need to send them to Bill right now."_

"Gotcha." Tavia replies before clipping her walkie-talkie back to her belt. She turns back to her new recruits and gives them an encouraging smile. "Are you guys ready to head inside?"

Christa, Omid, and Clementine exchange glances, all three of them clearly thinking of what could possibly go wrong inside of the camp they had just been brought into. _Another St. John's Farm? Another Crawford? _But nonetheless, they all nod and follow Tavia as she leads them away from the car, past tables covered in all sorts of food, and through a set of red double doors.


	3. 1-3: Welcome to Camp

Through the doubles doors is the main floor of what looks to have formerly been a hardware store. Shelves surround the corridor they walk down, with signs hanging from the ceiling detailing what used to be sold in each area: _Tools, Plumbing, Garden Area… _Guards armed with guns stand around at their respective posts, while other adults walk by, talking amongst themselves as they carry supplies to and from certain parts of the store.

They turn a corner and Clementine notices, just above the Service Center, an office that overlooks the entire main floor. A middle-aged man with dark brown hair and a - kind of droopy, she notes - mustache stands with his hands leaning against his desk, observing them closely through the window. For a second, she can swear that his eyes lock with hers, but she looks away just as quickly and rushes back over to Omid's side where she had fallen behind.

Tavia comes to a stop in front of a tall, open fence guarded by a black, overweight man wearing glasses. She nods at the man and then cocks her head at the survivors behind her. "We got some newcomers. I found them in Georgia."

His eyes widen momentarily. "Damn, that's pretty far. Welcome to Howe's." The guard nods and gives them a welcoming smile. His grin grows wider as he spots Clementine. "What's your name?"

Clementine moves so she's partially hidden behind Christa, but shyly responds nonetheless. "Clementine."

"I'm Alvin. You two her parents?" Alvin asks Christa and Omid, his face kind and open.

Christa shakes her head. "No, we're not. But we've been taking care of her for a few months. I'm Christa, and he's Omid."

Alvin's eyes lower down to Christa's baby belly and then reaches out a hand for her to shake. "Congrats on the baby." Christa reluctantly shakes his hand, still clearly unsure about this entire camp. Omid, however, shakes his hand happily and begins to tell Alvin how far along his girlfriend is as Alvin and Tavia lead them through the gate.

Beyond the fence is what must have been the garden area of Howe's. A couple of lawn chairs surround a bonfire in the middle of the room, and with no ceiling above them, the darkening sky is clearly visible. Bags of manure and seeds and other gardening supplies are stacked in multiple areas, and posters of fruits decorate the walls. A large sign advertises a sixty percent sale on all gardening supplies.

Tavia's voice snaps Clementine back out of her observations. "You guys'll be staying in here until we can make some space for you outside. It gets pretty cold at night, but luckily it's getting hotter and we make sure to give you guys beds and blankets to keep yourselves warm. The others in here will give them to you." She turns to leave, but stops herself a second later. "Job assignments will be given out tomorrow, but only to Omid since you're pregnant and she's a kid. But relax for now; it's about to be supper."

With that, she walks out of the garden area, taking out her walkie-talkie on her way. Alvin pats Omid on the back good-naturedly and tells him, "Don't worry, the work here isn't too bad. Mostly some construction stuff with keeping our walls safe, but we got tons of other stuff to do, like…"

Clementine tunes out their conversation easily, gazing around and catching sight of a group of people sitting around a garden table, staring right at them. She blinks a few times and then tugs at Christa's sleeve, breaking her attention away from Omid and Alvin's chat to gesture at the table crowd.

Christa raises an eyebrow and narrows her eyes in suspicion. "Who are they?" She asks Alvin, cutting Omid off in the middle of a sentence about some sort of school.

Alvin follows her gaze. "Oh, you mean them! They've been here a bit longer than you three but they're still pretty new. You guys should probably introduce yourselves. You'll be livin' with 'em for a while."

Christa places her hands at her hips, still eyeing the group in hesitation. Alvin, meanwhile, flashes Omid and Clementine a smile and begins to make his way back to the outside of the fence. "I'm gonna head back to my post. Dinner's in about thirty, and I am damn starved."

He walks away and Omid nudges Clementine's shoulder. "He's a pretty nice guy! I think we're making some friends here, huh?"

"Humph." Christa crosses her arms over her chest and begins making her way over to the table. Clementine and Omid exchange glances before following after her.

When they get closer, a young man, white and kind of handsome, stands up and nods at them in greeting. "Hey. Guess y'all are new here too, huh?"

"Yeah." Christa replies curtly. "And you are?"

"I'm Luke, this here is Nick-" Luke gestures to a guy around his age, but taller and with dark hair covered by a baseball cap and blue eyes. Nick stares at them before looking away in silence. "His uncle Pete-"

"Hey there." An older man sitting across from Nick waves at them welcomingly before looking back at the table. Upon closer inspection, Clementine realizes that he and the only woman at the table are playing a card game of sorts.

"And Carmela, Nick's mom." Luke finishes. Carmela looks to be a little younger than Pete, with black hair and a strict face and a few tattoos on her forearms. She gives them a brief smile before paying her attention back to her set of cards. Clementine has a feeling that she's the type of person who always wins.

Luke rubs the back of his neck. "So, uh… Who are y'all anyway? We're probably gonna be roomin' with each other for a while. Probably be best to get to know each other."

Christa eyes him for a moment before answering. "I'm Christa. This is Clementine and he's Omid."

Luke nods and smiles. "Well, it's good to meet ya. If y'all want, I can show you guys your beds and all that right now before supper."

"That'd be great!" Omid replies, grinning. As Luke begins to lead them to the area where the beds presumably are, Christa places her hands on Clementine's shoulders, leaning down to get close to eye-level with the young girl. "Clementine, go ahead and look around if you want. We'll be over there, okay?"

Clementine nods and watches as Christa follows after her boyfriend and Luke, turning her attention to the picnic table where everyone else sat. It feels, oddly enough, like the first day of school, and she's entering the cafeteria and unsure of where to sit and who to sit with.

She always hated the first day of school.

As if sensing her awkwardness, Pete pats the bench next to him beckoningly. "Clementine, right? Take a seat, don't be shy."

The girl takes a seat, eyeing the people around the table in silence. Pete sends her a smile. "Anyone ever taught you how to play poker?"

Nick scoffs and rolls his eyes. "Uncle Pete, she's - what, eight?"

"I'm nine." Clementine corrects him quickly. Nick raises his eyebrows as if to rest his case.

Carmela chuckles, her voice a bit raspy, as if from smoking too many cigarettes. "Never too young to learn." She quirks an eyebrow at Pete. "Bet."

Pete accepts the challenge. "Check." He lays his cards on the table. Clementine eyes them in confusion, unsure of what the purpose behind this game is. The adults back at the Motor Inn had found a deck of cards once, and always used to play poker or other card games, but Clementine had never paid much attention. She had always just colored with Duck - and Ben, no matter how much he protested - or read whatever comic books she came across.

The woman laughs triumphantly as she slams her cards down. "I win again, old man." Pete curses under his breath something about how he should have never taught her how to play in the first place as she gathers all the cards back together and begins to shuffle them.

"So, Clementine, what's your story?" Carmela asks nonchalantly. Clementine feels a little uncomfortable as everyone's attention settles back on her, that first-day-of-school feeling coming back with a vengeance.

She looks down at her hands, rubbing her fingers together. "I came from Georgia, near Atlanta."

"I know a few people near there. How was it?" Pete asks her, picking up his cards as Carmela lays them face-down in front of him.

Clementine shakes her head. "Not good. My friend, Lee, and I ended up heading to Macon and forming a group there but… it didn't work." The farm, the bandits, the sound of a gunshot and Carley's body hitting the floor, Duck resting in Katjaa's arm, Kenny returning from the woods with red eyes and slumped shoulders all flash through her mind.

She jumps a little as she hears Luke speak up from behind her. "Well, I'm sorry to hear that." He sits down beside her and gives her an understanding look. "Me and your friends set up your bed for you, so if you get tired after dinner, don't worry 'bout it."

The girl smiles at him thankfully. Carmela lays out a set of cards for Luke without him even asking. Luke picks them up and observes them with a look of concentration

Pete cocks an eyebrow at his nephew's friend. "You sure you wanna play, boy? Seein' as how you always lose?" He smirks when Luke just grumbles under his breath and nods.

"I actually met up with Christa and Omid on the way to Savannah. Our group was small by then, and then some other… stuff happened and it was just the three of us. Well, four, I guess, since she's having a baby soon." Clementine continues, looking over Luke's shoulders to glance at his cards.

Carmela hums. "How far along is she anyway? Remember how shitty it was when I was havin' Nick. Especially with his asshole of a father barely ever around."

Nick looks down at the table at her comment, a sigh escaping him. Pete glances up at him quickly, a frown on his face, before looking back at his cards almost guiltily.

"I think she's about eight months? We've been losing track recently." Clementine answers her. Carmela whistles in sympathy.

"It's not easy raising a kid, especially in this world. But at least she ain't alone. Her boyfriend seems like a funny guy."

Clementine nods. "He is."

"Wouldn't stop goin' on about baby names while we were makin' the beds." Luke adds, chuckling. "Omid, Jr.? Genevieve? Then he started talkin' 'bout namin' it after a president, and Christa just went off."

"That's just how they are."

"Well then, we'll all get along just fine then." Pete says, about to say something to his sister when Alvin calls out to them from the fence.

"Dinner's here!"

Nick stands up quickly, a smile appearing on his face for the first time since Clementine first saw him. "Fucking finally, I was hungry as hell."

"Slow your roll, son." Pete says, grabbing Nick's arm to stop him from leaving the table too fast. "The food'll still be there no matter how fast you go." Nick rolls his eyes and yanks his arm out of his uncle's grasp, stomping over to the gate without a backwards glance. Pete shakes his head in disappointment.

"Nick Randall, you better fuckin' apologize to your uncle for that later." Carmela calls out to her son, patting Pete's shoulder in sympathy.

_This entire family curses way too much, _Clementine thinks to herself as she watches Nick, Carmela, and Pete head towards the front of the room. Clementine makes to stand up herself but is stopped by Luke touching her hand.

"What's wrong, Luke?" She asks, gazing at him in confusion.

Luke glances back at where Omid and Christa are still sitting on their beds before meeting Clementine's eyes. "Your friends mentioned that you've… been through a lot. They didn't tell me anythin' personal, but… You alright? I know how it feels to… lose family. Lost mine the first few days of all this."

She feels her throat close up at Luke's words, her mind immediately conjuring a picture of her parents and her together before everything went wrong. Clementine misses them everyday. Something always manages to remind her of them, whether it be Omid's jokes or Christa's laugh or her own baseball cap.

Clementine clears her throat and puts on a fake smile. "I'm fine. I've… learned to deal with it, I guess."

He runs a hand through the back of his hair nervously, having sensed that he must have crossed a line. "That's real good. I'm, uh… Let's have dinner. I think it's rice and beans."

She's on her feet in seconds, her stomach growling from even the mention of food. "Oh my God, really? I'm _starving._" Together, they walk over to where Alvin and a few others - a black woman with curly hair who gives Alvin a kiss before handing him his plate and a smiling Native-American lady - are serving the evening meal.

* * *

(**Author's Note:** The characterization of Carmela belongs to Skooth, who is awesome and super talented. Also, in case you didn't notice, I don't know how the fuck to play poker. And another chapter is coming up with some hub areas, but it's not necessary to read.)


	4. 1-3 Hubs

(Author's note: This chapter is just a bunch of hub-like conversations between all the characters Clementine met in chapter 3. It's not necessary to read them, they just provide a little more information on and insight into the characters, which is why they're in this format. I know one thing season 2 has been lacking is hubs and I personally miss them.)

* * *

**Luke**

CLEMENTINE: [walks up to Luke, who is leaning against the partially-lowered fence] Dinner was pretty good.

LUKE: Good, right? We're lucky we stumbled up on this place.

CLEMENTINE: How long have you been with the others anyway?

LUKE: Pretty much most of my life. Nick and I've been friends for damn near twenty years now. Our families lived on the same block, we went to the same school, ya know. When everything went to shit, well… My folks were some of the first to go.

CLEMENTINE: I'm sorry.

LUKE: Nah, it's… it's okay. So I decided to tag along with Nick and his family. They're good people, just a little…

CLEMENTINE: Loud.

LUKE: Yeah, definitely. [Laughs]

[You can ask about the camp]

CLEMENTINE: How is it here? It seems pretty safe.

LUKE: Yeah, it is. We got here a few weeks before y'all but it's definitely better than where we were before.

CLEMENTINE: Before?

LUKE: Well, the four of us mostly just wandered around from place to place. It wasn't exactly safe.

CLEMENTINE: Yeah, that's what we did, too. There's no way Christa's baby could make it if we kept going like that.

LUKE: Exactly! Here, you got kids your age and even younger and then you got folks my age and triple it. And a bunch of food to keep them well fed and medicine to keep 'em healthy.

[You can ask him more about his family]

CLEMENTINE: Back before dinner… You mentioned your family…

LUKE: Yeah, they… They didn't make it. I was out with Nick and his family when the news started talkin' 'bout all o' this, y'know. I kept callin' em and callin' em, tellin' them that they needed to get to his house now, but they didn't pick up. When we went to check on them, well… It was too late.

CLEMENTINE: I'm sorry. I… I get it. My parents… They went on a vacation and left me with a babysitter and just... never came back. We went to Savannah to find them but… they were already gone.

LUKE: We've all lost people we cared about. Still care about.

CLEMENTINE: Yeah. We have. I'll see you later.

LUKE: Later, Clementine.

* * *

**Nick**

CLEMENTINE: Hey.

NICK: …What do you want?

CLEMENTINE: I just wanted to talk. You didn't really say much at the table, or at dinner, or… right now. [mumbles] And there's no need to be rude…

NICK: Ah, shit. I'm sorry, alright? I'm not good around new people. Ask any of them, they'll say the same thing.

CLEMENTINE: It's okay, I get it.

NICK: Thanks… Clementine, right?

CLEMENTINE: Yeah.

[You can ask him about the tension between him and Pete]

CLEMENTINE: Are you and Pete… okay?

NICK: What? Me and my uncle? What gave that away? [Laughs bitterly] The old bastard always loves to push me. Thinks that he can act like my dad just because my actual father didn't do shit for me or my mom.

CLEMENTINE: I'm sure he just wants the best for y-

NICK: I know, I know, he just wants the best for me. Damn, you sound just like Luke.

CLEMENTINE: …

NICK: I'm sorry for blowin' up. It's just… He's always thought I could do more than I could actually do. I never wanted to go to college or go hunting or any of that shit. All I did was sit around and play video games, or go out drinking with Luke and the other fuck offs in the neighborhood. Mom and Uncle Pete hated that.

CLEMENTINE: …I miss video games.

NICK: Shit, me too, kid.

[You can ask him about his dad]

CLEMENTINE: What happened to your dad?

NICK: … [(?) Nick doesn't appreciate you prying into business.]

CLEMENTINE: I'm sorry. It's not my business.

[You can talk about the camp]

CLEMENTINE: Do you like it here?

NICK: Better than out there.

CLEMENTINE: It seems like it.

[Luke begins to walk over to the table.]

CLEMENTINE: I'll see you later, Nick. [She gets up and begins to leave]

NICK: Alright.

[Clementine nods at Luke and he smiles at her before taking a seat across from Nick]

* * *

**Omid and Christa**

OMID: How great is it to actually have a cooked meal? Shit, I was starting to get used to eating straight from the can!

CLEMENTINE: It was good. I'm actually full!

CHRISTA: Well, just in case this place isn't what they say it is, you two better not get used to it.

OMID: It seems safe here to me…

CHRISTA: We haven't seen the entire thing just yet. Those two, Luke and Pete, they said there's a lot of walkers in the area. The guards didn't mention it, but what if a herd of them just hits this place and suddenly we're trapped? We need to see how well-protected they are.

OMID: Well, Alvin said I'll probably be working on the wall they put around this place to keep it safe, so we'll see.

[You can ask about what they'll be doing tomorrow morning]

CLEMENTINE: What do you think they'll have us doing? If we're not working?

CHRISTA: I don't know. I always tried to avoid groups this big. It's not safe.

OMID: But as long as Omid, Jr. is safe-

CHRISTA: Omid, please, we are not calling our baby that. Clementine, a little help here?

CLEMENTINE: As long as you don't name it after a president, I'm fine.

CHRISTA: Exactly. And what if it's a girl, huh?

OMID: Then we name her Christa!

CHRISTA: _Omid_…

[You can ask about how Christa is feeling]

CLEMENTINE: How are you feeling, Christa?

CHRISTA: Better now that I had an actual meal.

OMID: You scared the shit out of us back in that store.

CHRISTA: I just got a really bad cramp back there. It's normal for my stage of pregnancy, I think. [Omid and Clementine exchange concerned glances, Christa sighs in frustration at their well-meant concern over her] I'm fine, though. Just don't worry, alright?

[Clementine can excuse herself to go talk to everyone else]

CLEMENTINE: I'm gonna go talk to everyone else.

CHRISTA: That's a good idea. We don't know much about these people.

OMID: They seem nice…

CHRISTA: A lot of people_ seem_ nice before they let their true colors show. Just make sure to get some sleep soon. We all could need it. [She lays down in her bed, resting a hand on her stomach and her feet in Omid's lap]

* * *

**Pete**

CLEMENTINE: Hi, Pete.

[Pete is sitting around the bonfire. Clementine takes a seat by the fire as well and warms up her hands]

PETE: Hey there. You settlin' in well?

CLEMENTINE: Yeah, I think we are. Dinner was the best I've had in so long.

PETE: Well, it's good that you're enjoyin' it here. It's safe for kids like you.

[You can ask him about his family]

CLEMENTINE: It's good that you and your family stuck together.

PETE: Yeah, we ain't the most functional family, but we stuck it out. My sister's always been tough, most people'd say she's tougher than me.

CLEMENTINE: Heh, she seems like it.

PETE: My nephew… He's a piece of work. Boy's got his mom's temper, that's for sure.

CLEMENTINE: He seems really quiet.

PETE: Naw, that's just cause y'all are new. He's loud like the rest of us, you'll see. Carm and I, we just wanted to raise him right, y'know? We didn't want him to end up like his father. But he never liked to listen to us, well-meaning as we were.

CLEMENTINE: Well… that's kind of how all teenagers are, right?

PETE: Oh, he still doesn't like to listen to us today, but he does it now because it's either listen or get eaten by a herd of lurkers.

CLEMENTINE: Oh.

[You can ask about his past]

CLEMENTINE: What did you do before all of this?

PETE: I had a couple'a jobs to keep Carm and my nephew fed and with a roof over their heads. Did a lot of hunting, too.

CLEMENTINE: Hunting sounds… hard. Omid and Christa and I tried to catch a weasel-thing once, but it got away.

PETE: You just gotta be patient and quiet. And a good shot, of course. I remember the first time I took Nick out hunting. He was about your age, maybe a little older. Came across this beautiful 13-point buck just standin' there on the ridgeline. The boy takes the rifle, lines up the shot just like I taught him… and then I hear him start whinin'. He turns to me and he says, "I can't do it. I can't shoot it, Uncle Pete. Please don't make me shoot it!"

CLEMENTINE: Aww, that's sad.

PETE: So I go to grab the gun out his hand before this big buck runs off when bang! The gun fires. Boy nearly gut shot me! And of course, the buck gets away.

CLEMENTINE: [looks over at Nick, who is sitting across the table from Luke and listening to his friend talk with a small smile on his face] You got really lucky.

PETE: Yeah. I guess I did. [He stares at Nick, too, his face softening]

CLEMENTINE: I'll talk to you later.

PETE: See ya. And sleep tight, alright?

* * *

**Carmela**

CLEMENTINE: Hey, Carmela. Do you… need any help? [Carmela is cleaning up the mess leftover from dinner]

CARMELA: Sure. [Clementine begins to pick up the plates and cans and cups while Carmela sweeps] What's up, kid?

CLEMENTINE: What did you do before all of this?

CARMELA: A bunch of shit. I had to work a lotta jobs to keep a roof over our heads and Nick fed. My brother helped out a lot, but we still just scraped by. What did your momma and daddy do? If ya don't mind me askin'.

CLEMENTINE: My mom was a doctor and my dad was an engineer.

CARMELA: Well, shit! You guys musta been rich!

CLEMENTINE: Money doesn't mean much now.

CARMELA: And thank fuck for that. One of the only good things that came from this mess.

[You can ask her about Nick's dad]

CLEMENTINE: What happened with you and your… husband?

CARMELA: (shortly) Never been married.

CLEMENTINE: Nick's dad, then.

CARMELA: Not much. Fucker was never there, and whenever he did pull his head out of his ass and show up, it never lasted. Pete and I just tried to keep Nick away from him and raise him right.

CLEMENTINE: I'm sorry.

CARMELA: What're you apologizin' for, kid? It wasn't your fault.

[You can ask her about the camp]

CLEMENTINE: How is it like here? I've never been in a group this big.

CARMELA: It's a helluva lot better than it is out there, that's for sure. Bill keeps the place safe, which ain't easy with all these lurkers around the area.

CLEMENTINE: What's there to do here?

CARMELA: I haven't been here that long, but they'll give you the entire rundown tomorrow in the mornin'.

CLEMENTINE: During the job assignments thing?

CARMELA: Yeah. They'll probably put your friend on wall duty, you know, patching it up so no lurkers sneak in here. At least for now. They change it up a lot.

CLEMENTINE: Oh… What do you do?

CARMELA: Me? Well, I work on the cars and trucks they find most o' the time. I used to work in an autoshop before all this.

CLEMENTINE: Oh.

CARMELA: Not as fancy as an engineer or doctor, I know, but it brought in some cash, at least. You should probably turn in, now. You'll be wakin' up bright and early.

CLEMENTINE: Bye.


	5. 1-4: Old Friend

_Macon looks even worse than it did the last time she had been there, months and months ago. The pharmacy is no exception. _

_A plane had crashed through the ceiling of what had formerly been the Everett Pharmacy Drugstore, with birds sitting and chirping away on the tail end that stood out in the air. The front of the store, meanwhile, was completely caved in and inaccessible. _There goes that way in, _Clementine thinks sourly. _

_A big rig is parked beside the shop, with a little military jeep butted up against its side. __"If we could get up there, we could probably find a way inside." Christa says as Omid begins to walk over to the area in question._

_Her idea is quickly shot down, though, when Omid curses. "Damn." He picks up a destroyed ladder from the ground, holding it up for Clem and Christa to see. "It must have been connected to the truck. There's no way we're making it on top of there without this thing." The man throws it back down on the floor. All three of them wince at the loud _clang _it emits, glancing around them for any walkers that might spring up. _

_After a few seconds of tense silence, they spring back into planning. "Maybe we could look around and find another way in?" Clementine suggests, surveying the area around the pharmacy desperately. _

_Christa sighs and crosses her arms doubtfully. "Go ahead. But if we can't find a way inside, we'll have to move on. I'm sorry, Clem." _

_Clementine walks past her without a word, biting her lip thoughtfully. Part of her felt guilty for dragging Christa and Omid through here, a portion of her history that she should really at least begin trying to leave behind. There was no use dwelling in the past, but she couldn't help it. She had something she needed to do, something she needed to get. And if Macon was on the way to the west coast, well, at least it was convenient. There may even be some supplies leftover, although Lee and Kenny's last supply run had probably left the store dry. _

_She walks over to the side of the shop and spots a portion of the building that isn't boarded up or otherwise totally unsafe and may be their ticket inside. As she walks closer, however, she hears a throat gurgling, someone's - something's? - teeth mashing together, but there doesn't seem to be a walker nearby, as far as she knows. _

_The young girl pauses upon hearing a _squuuuish _come from the floor and looks down, covering her mouth and gagging in disgust as she realizes what she had stepped in. Clementine had never learned the organs of the body, and after seeing what she had just seen, she never wanted to. She jumps away and begins wiping the sole of her shoe on the pavement, reminding herself to wash them later at some point. _

_The growling grows louder at her actions. Clementine stops wiping her shoe and looks back down at the floor, her eyes moving from where the trampled guts lay on the floor, just a little further upwards. _

_A gasp escapes from her lips as she realizes just who - what, now - was growling at her. It had been months since she had seen last seen him, but she still remembered his name. Clementine remembered all of their names. _

_Doug lay on his back on the sidewalk, his torso splayed wide open but his brain somehow still intact enough for him to have become one of them. The rest of what remained of his body had been picked clean by walkers: the fat and muscle in his legs and arms, much of his neck and chin. Clementine remembers what happened to him clearly, as if it had only happened the other day. Lee had gone to save Carley first, and when they had turned back to rescue Doug, the barricade had fallen through and he had been pulled out of the window and into a group of them. His screams had echoed through her mind for weeks, and she knew that it had haunted Carley, too. Carley couldn't fall asleep peacefully for months from the guilt that had overcome her. _

_So focused on her old friend's body, she didn't notice Omid approaching her until he stood beside her, taking in Doug's remains with a grimace. _

_"Gross." Omid comments. "Don't come over here, babe! Clem and I got this." He calls out over his shoulder to Christa. "I don't want her throwing up when she sees this. The dog was bad enough." Omid clarifies to Clementine, but his playful smile drops as he realizes that she's still staring at Doug's reanimated corpse in horror. _

_"Clem? Are you okay?" She doesn't answer and just wraps her arms around her body, unable to look away. "Shit, did you know this guy?" Omid asks, finally connecting the dots. _

_Clementine nods and clears her throat. "Yeah… During the first few days of all this, Lee and Kenny and I met up with a group that had holed up in here. This guy, Doug, he was really quiet but… I don't know, he was nice. We didn't really get to talk much." _

_Doug snaps his teeth at them, part of his jaw missing from a particularly vicious walker bite. Omid whistles in sympathy. "Damn. And he's still here?" His eyes drift up to gaze at the broken window where Doug had met his demise. "I guess we got our way inside, though!" _

_He glances back at her, and then back at Doug before lifting up his hatchet. "Clementine, you should go… stand over there. I'll take care of i- him. Don't worry." _

_She walks away without a word, wincing as she hears the squishing noise made from Omid's weapon sinking into Doug's skull. "Christa! We found a way inside!" Omid shouts after dislodging his hatchet, walking up to the window and carefully avoiding the broken glass on the ground. _

_Christa walks over quickly and purses her lips as she moves beside her boyfriend. "Unless you want to get cut to pieces trying to get through this, we have to break it a bit more."_

_Omid shrugs and lifts up his hatchet, stopping himself when Christa waves her hand hurriedly. "It's gonna make noise, though, so we have to be prepared if anything comes our way. Alright?" Clementine and Omid nod. Clementine takes out her knife and glances around, cringing at the first sound of glass shattering. _

_He makes quick work of breaking most of the glass still stuck in the window frame. Clementine and Christa stand guard, tense in case any walkers were attracted to the noise being made. A few monsters begin limping from down the street. Christa and Clementine glance at each other briefly before lifting up their respective weapons, getting ready to run over and attack when Omid's voice stops them. _

_"Guys, it's clear! Let's go!" _

_The two females look at the walkers, still a good distance away from the shop, and then at the opening Omid had already entered through. "Fuck it." Christa mumbles, gently pushing Clementine inside and then sticking out her arms to allow Clementine and Omid to pull her through. _

_The shop is a wreck inside, the sky visible from where the plane had crashed through the ceiling and rubble everywhere. "Omid, you guard the door - window - _whatever_." Christa commands. Omid agrees without a word, stepping outside and getting ready to kill the two or three walkers still slowly approaching. _

_Christa turns to Clementine and nods, her hands on her hips. "Find whatever you need to get and then we're out of here. I'll follow you, just in case." _

_Clementine doesn't waste a second, rushing over to the office door. Or, at least, where the door used to be, having been torn off its hinges. Probably by a group of hungry walkers. Her suspicions are proven correct when a walker tears out of the office, attempting to grab any part of her it could reach. _

_She acts on instinct, her knife swinging through the air and stabbing through its knee hard enough for it to stumble. Her knife is lodged into its skull moments later, and slides out after a hard tug that sends her reeling backwards. Luckily for her, this allows Christa to take out the next walker that comes tumbling out with her hammer and then kick it away so Clementine can squeeze through the doorway. _

_Inside the office, more walkers begin piling out of where it was connected to the pharmacy section. Clementine doesn't waste more time than necessary, kneeling down briefly to grab the item from off the floor and then rushing back outside. Her hand grips Christa's sleeve and pulls her along with her, quickly sidestepping a crawler that reaches out for their feet. _

_"Got it! Let's go!"_

* * *

_Later, when the drugstore is miles away and they're walking along the road to their next destination, Clementine pulls out the memento she grabbed from the office, the whole reason they had risked their lives to break into an overrun store. _

_The picture is worn, probably from having been trampled on by the many walkers that had wandered through the shop, and torn from where a section of it had been ripped off. But Lee's face was visible, staring back at her with a warm smile. The same smile he would give to her each time he returned from a supply run, or when she would give him a drawing she had made especially for him, or when he had rescued her from that awful, awful man back in Savannah. _

_She runs a hand over the photo in an attempt to smooth out the wrinkles, not even noticing the tears gathering in her eyes until she feels Omid nudging at her shoulder._

_The man's face is serious for once as she looks up at him, clutching the picture to her chest as if to hide it from his gaze. "Are you okay, Clem?" He asks, his voice heavy with concern. _

_Clementine sniffs and nods, wiping at her eyes and feeling embarrassed over her display of emotion. "I'm fine, it's just… Going back there brought back a lot of sad memories." _

_He swings an arm over her shoulder and pulls her into a one-armed hug, giving her a smile so wide that she couldn't help but return it. "It's good to face that type of stuff. Isn't it, Christa?" _

_Christa hums in agreement, her attention focused on the map held up in front of her face. Clementine stuffs the photo of Lee into her jeans pocket, feeling lighter on her feet than she had felt previously as they continue on down the road._


	6. 1-5: School is in Session

The next morning, Clementine wakes up to Christa gently shaking her shoulder. "Clementine, it's time to get up." Clementine just burrows further into the pillow on her mattress - an _actual mattress_, with covers and everything! Winter had been spent trying to keep as warm as possible to avoid sickness, so she had been able to just lay around in one of the beds of the large house they had stayed in all day. But once spring had come along, they were out and back on the road to the west coast.

Now they were nowhere close to their original destination. In fact, they had just gone the complete opposite direction, but Clementine found that she didn't really ever _want _to go to San Francisco in the first place. Big cities like Atlanta and Savannah had been some of the first to go - San Francisco had probably followed the same fate.

She rolls over to face Christa, blinking her eyes open and grumbling, "What time is it?" Part of her is reminded of when her mother would wake her up bright and early to get her ready for school. Clementine had always asked for _just five more minutes, mom_, but her mother would just sigh and keep shaking her until she eventually got up. Downstairs, her father would normally be preparing breakfast, singing along loudly to the music on the radio he would keep on the kitchen table. When Clementine would enter the room, rubbing her eyes and dragging her feet, he would give her a quick peck on the top of her beyond messy bed head and lay a plate of pancakes and eggs in front of her spot on the table.

It always pains her to remember how much her parents did for her, and how she had been too young to ever really appreciate them when they were alive and not wandering the streets of Savannah, forever and ever.

"About seven, I think." Christa looks up at the sky, the rising sun visible from the lack of ceiling coverage. "Tavia wants a word with us, so you need to get up, okay?" She tells her, looking away from Clementine to look towards the front of the room. Clementine stands up and follows her gaze to see Tavia talking to Omid and Luke by the gate where they had entered through yesterday.

As they walk over to Tavia and the others, Clementine pats her hair down as much as possible - though it doesn't do much to help the bird's nest that is her hair nowadays - and places her hat back over her head. She wishes, not for the first time, that she had a brush to make herself look less like a mess, but style didn't really matter much anymore.

"-working on the wall with Luke and a few others. The expansion project is coming along well enough. We want to make this camp as big and safe as possible for other survivors to live in." Tavia is saying to the men as she and Christa walk up to her. _The expansion project? _

Luke nods and pats Omid's shoulder, gesturing for him to follow him out of the gate. After a quick kiss to Christa's cheek and a pat to Clementine's head, he does.

Tavia turns to Clementine and Christa, nodding her head in greeting. "Did you two sleep well?"

"We did." Christa answers simply, and it's the truth. With spring coming along, it hadn't been too chilly, and the blankets given to them warded off whatever cold had snuck through. For the first time in a while, Clementine hadn't had a nightmare when she had fallen asleep - no thoughts of Lee turning into a walker in front of her eyes, no images of her parents in the herd reaching out and ripping into her neck, no memories of a leglessMark crawling down the stairs and leaving a trail of blood in his wake…

The woman smiles and raises an eyebrow. "I make sure to keep my vows." She clears her throat. "Brunch is in a few hours. We'll make sure to get a meal in you by then. For now, neither of you two have to work, obviously. Bill would have been down here to talk to you three, but he's been busy with the expansion project. But you'll meet him soon.

Now, for stuff you two can do…" Tavia continues, looking down at Clementine. "There's a couple of kids around your age here, and a school where-"

"A school?!" Clementine cuts in, her eyes wide as her head snaps up to meet Tavia's eyes.

Tavia nods in confirmation, pleased with her eagerness. "Well, it's obviously not exactly like the school you went to, but we have a few volunteer teachers for subjects like math and English and history. I'll radio in Alvin and have him take you."

She turns to Christa then, probably telling her about what fun stuff they had for pregnant women to do here, but Clementine can't help but tune out their conversation, thoughts swirling and swirling in her mind. Suddenly, she's not in a brand new place up north, but in an overrun former community in Georgia's first and last city, sitting in a dark classroom while Kenny and Ben work on getting the door to the armory open. Lee is telling her about forming their own little classroom, just him and her, when they finally find a safe place far away from the dead roaming the land. And she remembers feeling so much hope even with the rest of the world falling apart around her and the rest of the group. That hope didn't last long, seeing as how it was only a day later when everything came falling down.

But as Lee said to her that day, hope is the one thing none of this - both walkers and monsters hiding behind normal human faces - could take away.

Her thoughts are interrupted by Alvin waving one of his large hands in front of her face and his voice calling out to her, "Clementine? You alright there?"

Clementine blinks and glances around, just noticing that Christa and Tavia had left and it was now only her and the man in the room. Alvin offers her a smile. "You ready to head to class?"

She nods eagerly, grinning up at him in excitement as he begins to lead her out of the pen and through the hallways of the Howe's Hardware Store. "This is kind of weird, but I really missed school." Clementine admits, remembering how before everything changed, school had been just a chore for her, the damned reason why she had to wake up early every weekday and then come home to a pile of homework to do all night. But she would take homework over walkers any day now that the privilege of education had been taken away from her.

Alvin chuckles, his voice deep and reminding her almost of her father's. "It ain't weird. Hell, I miss it sometimes, too. When you become an adult, you start to wish you were back in school. Homework and bullies ain't _nothing _compared to taxes and work. That's why I started teaching."

"You're a teacher?" She asks, gazing up at him in surprise. Now that he had mentioned it, he did sort of give off the air of a teacher, but she couldn't exactly pinpoint why. Maybe it was the glasses.

He rubs the back of his neck. "Well, teaching _here_. Sometimes, when I ain't busy around camp, I give a couple of lessons on English."

They keep walking until they arrive in the furniture section of the Howe's, where a few desks and accompanying chairs are lined up in two rows and facing a large bulletin board attached to the wall. A few children are already seated, talking amongst each other as they wait for the lesson to begin. It reminds her so much of her old school that she finds herself unable to breathe for a moment, her entire body freezing up and causing Alvin to bump into her and nearly send her crashing to the floor.

The small gasp she releases is enough to catch the attention of all the kids seated, and she feels her cheeks heating up in embarrassment as all their eyes land on her. _The first day of school _all _over again_, she thinks as she looks up at Alvin, silently begging him to get the focus off of her.

Of course, Alvin interprets her puppy dog eyes incorrectly. "Guys, this is Clementine. She's new here, just arrived yesterday."

One of the girls, an older-looking Latina, waves at her with a large smile. The other children just continue to stare. She shifts from one foot to the other awkwardly and looks back up at Alvin, hissing, "Can I sit down now?"

"You don't wanna say anything about yourself?" Alvin asks. _He is such a teacher_, Clementine thinks sourly, remembering how her old teachers would always make her and the other students say something about themselves on the first day to "break the ice" or some other dumb excuse to embarrass them all.

Clementine crosses her arms and looks down at the floor, shrugging her shoulders as she thinks of what to say. "I… I'm from Georgia. I like comic books and… other stuff."

"Comic books?" A boy in the front asks, raising his hand up the air belatedly. "There's a store for comics here. It's really cool!" He looks to be around her age, maybe a little older, and is of Asian descent.

She turns to look at Alvin in confusion. "Bill's expandin' the camp to include a few shops next door. One of them used to be a comic store." He clarifies, and then scans the makeshift classroom before pointing to an empty seat besides the Latina. "You can sit there, Clementine. Lesson's 'bout to start anyway."

Clementine makes her way over to her chair, glancing around awkwardly as the other children begin to take out their notebooks and writing utensils. It reminds her of all the times she accidentally forgot her school supplies at home and had to suffer through the embarrassment as her teachers called her out for not being "prepared to learn."

The girl next to her taps her shoulder. When Clementine turns to face her, she smiles and holds up her heart-patterned notebook. "Do you want some paper? To write on?" She whispers, looking at her questioningly through her red glasses.

"Uh… Sure." Clementine replies, watching as the bespectacled girl flips open the notebook and carefully rips out a page to make sure it doesn't tear.

When she hands Clementine the paper, Clementine smiles at her shyly. "Thanks…" Clementine pauses, glancing at her in confusion as she realizes she doesn't even know the girl's name.

"Sarah. I'm Sarah." She introduces herself, pushing her glasses further up the bridge of her nose. Sarah turns to face the front and Clementine follows her lead. On the bullet board, Alvin had tacked on a paper with a list of vocabulary words they were to learn the definitions of today. Clementine makes to write them down until she realizes that she's literally unable to do so.

"Sarah?" She whispers, nudging the girl's shoulder with her own softly. Sarah glances at her and then at Alvin, trying to indicate that class was in session and now wasn't the right time to be talking. Clementine sighs and makes a writing gesture over her paper, raising her eyebrows at the older girl to make sure she understood what she was asking for.

"Oh!" Sarah exclaims, accidentally catching the attention of a few kids around them. She twists around in her seat to grab her blue backpack, reaching into the front pocket and pulling out a pencil. "Here. Just make sure to give it back, okay?"

Clementine nods and takes the pencil gratefully, briefly noting the words engraved on the side: _NaNoWriMo 2001. _Up front, Alvin begins using the vocabulary words in sentences to make their meanings more clear. Most of the words are some that she actually already knows, despite her young age compared to a few of the other children, including Sarah, but she tries to pay attention anyway. It must be difficult to teach a class with students of mixed ages and educational backgrounds. Clementine isn't even the youngest one present; that title belongs to the little blonde girl sitting in front of her that was sketching a rainbow rather than actually taking any notes.

"Clem?" She turns to face Sarah, her pencil hovering in the air as she stops taking notes. It had been so long since she had last written anything, so her handwriting was horribly sloppy, but it was still legible. "We're friends… right? We can be best friends!"

Sarah bites her lip as Clementine blinks and looks down at her paper thoughtfully. "Yeah. We're…friends." Clementine agrees slowly.

"Pinky promise? This is important. Friends have to trust each other no matter what!" The older girl rests her hand on the table and raises her pinky, looking at Clementine expectedly.

Clementine raises her an eyebrow but nonetheless wraps her own pinky around Sarah's, a little weirded out by her new friend's…enthusiasm.

Sarah beams. "A pinky swear is forever."

"Girls?" Both girls snap to attention upon hearing Alvin's voice directed at them. The man stares at them in amusement, his arms crossed as he leans back against the wall. "You two still with us?"

Embarrassed, the two separate their pinkies and grab their pencils, attempting to ignore the sound of the other children giggling at them. Alvin chuckles and pushes up from off the wall, taking a seat in his own chair. "Nah, girls, it's alright. It's about time for a break anyway."

At this, all of the children except for Sarah and Clementine begin conversing with each other, turning around in their seats or standing up to move somewhere else. Clementine glances down at her paper, still mostly devoid of any work, and sighs. English had never been her favorite subject. Social studies had always been more exciting to her, and Omid had always loved telling her little facts about United States history to cheer her up whenever she began feeling down.

"Hey." Clementine looks up from her notes and meets the eyes of the Asian boy that had mentioned comic books earlier. "Do you wanna hang out with the rest of us?" He tilts his head in the direction of where several of the other students were gathered.

She glances at Sarah. The girl has her nose buried deep in a book she had pulled out from her bag, but she catches a glimpse of her cheeks turning redder and redder. "Uhhh… Sure, I guess? Sarah, come on."

Sarah looks up from her book in shock. "You want me to join you?" She whispers, her eyes wide. Clementine nods, unsure of why Sarah was so mystified. They had just promised to be each other's best friends, after all. But it's not only her Sarah is speaking to; the boy just shrugs and gestures for them to follow him.

The three of them walk over to a desk in the front row, now surrounded by a small group of kids – four in total. Clementine perches on top of a desk a row back, patting the space beside her as a hint for Sarah to sit down. The Asian boy, meanwhile, takes a seat in his chair and pounds at the table with his fist.

The girl besides him, also Asian but clearly a few years older, slaps his shoulder and chastises him. "Jake, keep it down, will you?"

Her friend, a white girl with curly brown hair, catches sight of Clementine and Clementine swears that her eyes light up in delight as she points in her direction. "You! You're the new girl!"

Clementine crosses her arms over her chest and subtly attempts to scoot further away, nearly sending her into Sarah's lap. "Yeah, that's me." She replies uncomfortably.

The brunette continues, her voice speeding up in excitement. "It's been a while since we got new people! You came from Georgia, right? How was it down there? Did you have a group before this? How'd you end up he-"

The long-haired Asian girl covers her mouth with her hand, gazing at Clementine apologetically. "Sorry. Wendy here loves to gossip, and she hasn't had her fix in weeks, not since Luke and the rest of his group got comfortable. She bothered them for _days_."

Wendy reaches up and removes her friend's arm to uncover her mouth. "You can't deny that Luke is cute!" Her friend just rolls her eyes.

"I'm Jessica, by the way." She tells Clementine, and then points at the rest of the group in order of introduction. "You already met Jake, my brother. Wendy is the one who can't stop talking."

"Hey-" Wendy protests, pouting.

Jessica ignores her and continues introducing Clementine to the group. "That's Victor. I think he's around your age, right?" Victor, a Hispanic boy with shaved brown hair, nods and lifts a hand at her in greeting. "And that's Maya." Jessica finishes off, gesturing to the young blonde girl that had sat in front of Clementine during the lesson. Maya is young, probably around five or six years old. It's been nearly a year since Clementine's seen a child as young as her.

"Sooooooo, Clem…" Wendy begins curiously. "I saw you enter the camp yesterday with a really tall lady and her short boyfriend. Are they your parents? Is that lady pregnant? Sorry if she isn't, I mean, I've gotten it wrong before and I thought if I asked her and she wasn't, she would yell at me for calling her fat-"

Clementine cuts her off before she can continue to speak. "No, they're not my parents, but Christa's pregnant, yeah."

Wendy squeals happily, causing Clementine and Jessica to cringe. "That's great! The last woman who was pregnant had a really cute little baby boy, but that was months ago. What do you think, boy or girl?"

"Uh, I don't really-" Clementine begins to answer. She genuinely did not care about whatever sex the baby might turn out to be.

"I hope it's a girl. Baby girl clothes are so cute, the little dresses and shoes and stuff."

Before Clementine can be pulled into a conversation on babies, Jake begins to talk to her. "So you like comics, right?"

Clementine shrugs. "I used to read them all the time up in my treehouse." She frowns thinking of her old treehouse, and how her former favorite place to hang out was now associated with all sorts of horrible memories. Curling up alone as helicopters flew above her, growing too afraid to leave the safety of the tree as she watched her neighbors get torn apart by monsters, clutching her hammer close to her chest as her stomach growled in hunger…

"We like to hang out at the comic store after class sometimes. It's part of the expansion." Victor explains, leaning back in his chair.

"Is it safe there?" Sarah asks cautiously. "My dad said-"

Jake waves off her concerns and shakes his head. "They're working on the wall, it's fine. No lurkers have broken in, at least not from there."

Clementine furrows her eyebrows in confusion. "From there? Have walkers broken in here before...?"

Before either Jake or Victor can answer, Alvin stands up and claps his hands to gather everyone's attention. "Come on, guys, break's over." All the kids begin to head back to their seats, still talking amongst themselves as the class starts again. Clementine sits down besides Sarah but finds herself unable to pay attention to whatever Alvin is saying, a bit overwhelmed by how many new people she had met in the past few two days alone. Even when everything used to be normal, she had never had many too many friends, and now she suddenly had a whole group of them. _And a best friend_, Clementine thinks, glancing at Sarah from the corner of her eye and watching as the older girl dutifully jots down notes in her notebook.

_You can't get used to this, _she reminds herself, Christa's words from after dinner springing into her mind. _If this place isn't as safe as they say it is, we're leaving right away. _She wills herself to not get too attached, knowing that once you've grown used to something or some people, they always find a way to either disappear or turn on you. _And if they turn on us, there's no way we could win. _

* * *

[**Author's note: **This is actually the longest chapter I've written so far. :o We've got some completely new characters - my personal favorite is Jessica. Next chapter is where we get some action started.

Fun fact: A thing I like to do to get Clementine's character about right is read all of her lines in her little eight/nine-year-old voice... and then make her sound 10 times more traumatized. Adorable yet sad.]


	7. 1-6: Super Heroes

Days pass by and all three of them find themselves beginning to settle in, despite Christa's wishes. But the pregnant woman could not deny that the Howe's and the rest of the strip mall it belonged to were much safer than any other place they had inhabited before. The other survivors seemed to be nice or at least tolerable - except for one of the guards, Troy, who constantly leered at all the woman and yelled at slow workers, but he was harmless. And the night after their arrival, they had finally met the man in charge of everything at dinner.

William Carver was an older man, probably in his forties, but his strength was obvious and his intelligence even more so. Clementine recognized him as the man she had spotted when they first arrived, watching them through his office overlooking the main floor of the hardware store.

"_Welcome to the community. Now… This isn't just a _camp_, which never seem to last as long as survivors feel unwelcome and unsafe. We all have a vital role to play in keeping the human race alive during such times of darkness and despair. Most importantly, we want newcomers to feel as though they are new members of a growing family rather than just a group of…strangers trying to get along. So feel free to call me Bill, if you'd like." _Bill had said to them in front of the gate, making sure to look each one of them in the eye. Clementine had felt a bit intimidated by this clearly powerful man, but she tried not to let it show as she shook his hand and gave him her best smile.

Now she was sitting in the comic book store, leaning back against one of the shelves as she flips through one of the issues of _Ratman. _The store had previously been called _Victor's Comics_, a small place that the kids in the camp had adopted as their place to hang out. Wendy and Jessica were talking to Sarah about clothes or make-up or something else similarly feminine by the front window, while Jake and Victor were sitting across from her and arguing over something.

Well, Jake was arguing. Victor, on the other hand, was one of the calmest people she had ever met, especially for a kid around his and her age. While Jake insisted over and over again that Batman was better than Iron Man, Victor never lost his temper and peacefully disagreed with his own evidence. Clementine has to admire his even temper, especially after being around people like Lilly and Kenny for months.

"Clementine?" She looks up from her comic book to see Maya standing down the aisle, staring at her shyly.

Clementine blinks. "Maya. Do you wanna… sit down?" She pats the spot on the floor besides her. The young girl smiles and takes a seat quickly, her long blonde hair brushing against Clementine's shoulder as she glances at the comic book in the older girl's hands.

"What're you reading?" Maya asks curiously.

"_Ratman_. My friend and I would read comics like this all the time back at our old camp." She pauses upon thinking of Duck, her smile faltering for just a second before she shakes her head to clear her mind. "Do you wanna see it?"

Maya squirms in embarrassment. "I… I don't really like reading."

Clementine raises an eyebrow. "Maya, it's mostly pictures."

"Can you read it to me? That's what my mommy would always do… but with actual books. Like fairy tales." The young girl says quickly, her pale face growing redder and redder.

A laugh escapes from Clementine's mouth. "Yeah, of course. From the beginning?"

Before Maya can answer, they hear screams from the front of the shop.

Clementine shoots up to her feet, running over to the source of the screams without a second thought. Victor, Jake, and even Maya follow after her, Jake calling out for his sister frantically.

Two walkers were pounding at the glass window where Sarah, Wendy, and Jessica had been sitting earlier. Now, however, the girls were on their feet, staring shell-shocked at the lurkers trying to get inside. Clementine grabs Sarah's arm, yanking her back so she's further away from the window.

"Get out of the way! It's not gonna hold!" Clementine shouts at Wendy and Jessica.

Wendy steps away slowly, her face fearful. It's odd to see the normally peppy girl so terrified. "I… I…"

Victor calls out from the back of the room, "Guys, there's no way out through the back. We gotta go through the front!"

His suggestion is shut down, however, when another lurker begins beating at the door. _Of course. _Clementine bites her lip as the other kids begin to panic, briefly wondering where the people assigned to work at the wall were. _Probably on a break… This section of the wall completely fell apart. _

The door breaks down and a walker tumbles inside, growling and gnashing its teeth in hunger.

She turns around, waving her arms in front of her wildly. "Get back! Go!"

"What are you gonna do?" Maya asks, her voice trembling.

Clementine doesn't answer and just gives Victor a pleading look, trusting him to bring the others to safety. Victor grabs Maya and Jake's arms and hurries to the back of the room, urging the girls to follow him.

She glances around, desperately searching for anything she could use to defend herself. The walker limps along after her, reaching its arms out in an attempt to grab any part of her it could reach. Clementine paces backwards and nearly trips over an object on the floor, catching her balance before the walker can try to tackle her to the floor.

When she looks down, she gasps and grabs the hammer laying there, sighing in relief. Now feeling more confident, Clementine quirks her eyebrow at the lurker and lunges out, swinging at its knee to bring it down to the floor. Quickly, she lodges the hammer into its skill, killing it instantly.

She wipes her sweaty forehead with the back of her hand, closing her eyes and releasing a long sigh. Her eyes snap back open once she hears the sound of the heavy glass window breaking down, sending two more monsters stumbling inside. Clementine hisses and yanks at the hammer still embedded in the walker's skull, but it's stuck in deep.

She pulls harder, her breathing accelerating until she begins to feel lightheaded as the walkers get closer and closer. With a disgusting _squish_, the hammer comes free and Clementine doesn't waste a single second, sending the sharper end into the face of the walker closest to her.

Unfortunately, her blow isn't enough to send the walker sprawling to the floor and both of them continue to approach her. Clementine ducks behind a shelf, sticking her hammer out and managing to trip the one she had hit before. She sinks her weapon into its brain, groaning as she realizes that the damn thing is stuck again. But this time, the remaining walker is much closer, and no matter how hard she pulls, it can't come free, _it can't come free- _

She hears a whistle coming from a couple of feet behind the lurker. When Clementine glances up, still pulling with all her strength, she catches a glimpse of Jake waving his arms around in the air crazily. "Hey! Get over here, jerk-off!"

The walker turns around and begins heading towards Jake, who gulps but nonetheless stands his ground. Clementine plants her foot on the dead one's chest and finally manages to yank out the hammer, swinging it into the back of the other walker's knee. Jake barely manages to back away before it comes crashing to the floor, still crawling after him hungrily.

It takes four blows to the skull before finally going limp, blood oozing out of the giant hole she had created in the back of its head. She sinks to her knees, panting heavily in exhaustion.

Jake shakes her shoulder, quietly urging her to stand back up, "Clementine, there's more of 'em…"

Clementine curses under her breath but nonetheless forces herself back to her feet, pushing Josh behind her as she peaks out from behind the shelf. Two more walkers enter through the destroyed window, having heard the ruckus made by the walkers Clementine had successfully killed. But before Clementine can even raise her hammer in the air, both of them fall to the ground to reveal Luke and Pete.

She lets her hammer slip out of her fingers and land on the tiled floor with a light _clang. _Luke yanks out his machete from the walker's head and rushes over to Clementine and Jake, placing a hand on the young girl's shoulder in concern. "Shit, Clem, you alright?" Clementine nods and gives him a small, grateful smile, wiping the blood splattered over her face with her sleeve.

Pete, meanwhile, observes the dead bodies Clementine had left behind in surprise. "What happened here?" He asks, kicking the lurker lying in front of him.

Jake answers before Clementine can begin to speak, his voice rising in excitement. "Clementine totally slaughtered them! It was _awesome!_"

Luke raises his eyebrows in disbelief. "A nine year old took out _three lurkers? _By herself?"

"I… I had some help." She admits, nodding at Jake appreciatively. If it weren't for him distracting that walker, she would have died for sure.

"Okay, let me get this straight. A nine year old _and _a – I dunno, ten year old-"

"I'm _eleven_-"

"-managed to kill three of 'em? Well, I'll be damned." Luke says, letting go of Clementine's shoulder and scratching his bearded chin.

Victor, Sarah, Jessica, Wendy, and Maya walk out from the back room, clearly having realized that the fighting was over. Sarah rushes over to Clementine, grinning from ear to ear. "That was _so cool_!"

"Little girl's tough as nails." Pete says, patting her back lightly. She feels herself turning red at both Pete's comment and the amazement on the other kids' faces, unused to this type of attention.

"Well, y'all probably shouldn't be out here no more." Luke clears his throat, sheathing his machete in the scabbard over his back. "Everyone head back to the homestead. This place ain't exactly safe."

"You mean we can't hang out here anymore?" Jake asks, his excitement waning.

Jessica slaps the back of his head and shakes her head. "Of course not, genius! Not after a bunch of lurkers just trashed the place!"

Jake whines but allows himself to be pulled out of the shop by his sister and Victor. Wendy sends Luke a large smile before following behind them, Maya clutching her hand tightly.

"I've never seen anything like that _ever_." Sarah whispers to her in awe. "I mean, I saw my dad fight a few but he's my _dad_ and you're just a little girl."

"I'm only a few years younger than you. And it's no big deal." Clementine tells her uncomfortably, beginning to make her way outside until Luke stops her with a hand to her shoulder.

She turns to face him, unsure of what he wanted to say to her now. "You didn't get hurt or anythin', right? No scratches or… bites?"

"Luke, I'm _fine. _I've been fighting them for months now. That's how Tavia found us. We got cornered in a grocery store and had to fight a bunch of them off." Clementine says, a bit touched by his concern. "I'm pretty hungry, though."

"Well, Sarah can take you to get somethin' to eat." The brown-haired man says, smiling at both of the girls before tilting his head at Pete. "Pete and I should probably get back to work on this wall. I didn't think it'd break down just like that…"

Clementine realizes that this is the first time she's ever seen walkers break into the camp before, and remembers Christa telling her to keep an eye out on any unsafe areas. "Is this the first something like… this has happened? Walkers breaking in?"

"Walkers, huh? That's what you call 'em?" Luke chuckles. She rolls her eyes and just waits for him to answer her actual question. "I dunno, I'm still kinda new here, myself. These walls ain't exactly lurker-proof just yet."

She nods, promising herself to tell Christa of this information later. For now, though, she says a quick goodbye to Luke and Pete before following Sarah back to the Howe's.

* * *

Word spreads around camp even faster than it used to at her old school. Clementine had never been a fan of gossip, unlike the other young girls who would spend all of lunch talking about how gross boys were or who was fighting whom that week. For the most part, she had successfully managed to stay out of any girl talk, having spent most of her time reading or living in her own little world. She certainly could not remember a time where _she _had been the center of such rumors, whispered to each other in class or on the playground.

Not until now.

Wendy, of course, had told everyone she had run into later that day about Clementine's defense against the walkers in the comic store. Clementine had no doubt in her mind that the older girl had exaggerated the events and made them out to be much more impressive than they truly had been.

When she enters the garden area to get ready for dinner, having spent the rest of the day hanging out with some of the other kids in the furniture section, she sees everyone except for Omid and Nick gathered around the fire. She groans as they all turn to look at her, grinning.

"I guess you all heard about what happened." Clementine mumbles, sitting down between Carmela and Christa and warming up her hands over the flames.

Carmela slaps her back and chuckles. "Shit, kid, I didn't know you were a super hero."

"Is that really what Wendy's saying?" She asks incredulously.

"Naw. Might as well be, though, with how you got all them kids lookin' up to you now." The woman says, leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed.

Christa smiles at her approvingly. "You did a good job, Clementine."

"It wasn't a big deal. You and Omid and I, we've been in worse situations before…" Clementine insists.

"But you handled it by yourself this time." The pregnant woman counters.

"I probably woulda been lurker food if I'd'a been there when I was your age." Luke tells her jokingly.

Carmela rolls her eyes. "Boy, when you and Nick were her age, y'all were still playin' with dolls."

"They weren't dolls!" He replies quickly, his face growing red. "They were action figures."

Pete begins coughing to hide his laughter at Luke's denial. Clementine giggles at the look of outrage on Luke's face.

"Hey, girl." The girl looks up to see Troy standing at the gate with an impatient scowl fixed on his face. He always seemed to be frowning, but it was different when it was aimed at her. "Bill wants a word with you in his office."

She looks at Christa worriedly. Christa stands up to catch the guard's attention. "What about dinner? She needs to eat, doesn't she?"

"Just come the fuck on…" Troy grumbles, rolling his eyes and shifting his gun around in his arms as a hint for her to hurry.

Christa glares at him and gives Clementine a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "I'll save something for you, alright?"

Clementine gives her a grateful look before standing up, readjusting her hat, and following Troy out of the room. They walk down the hall silently, Clementine trying to keep up with Troy's brisk pace. After walking up a set of stairs, they reach the door to Bill's office. Clementine is a bit surprised when Troy knocks, not really expecting the man to be polite enough to do such a thing.

The door opens to reveal a white, blonde-haired lady, probably around Omid's height. Her face is red in anger, though she tries to hide behind a smile that she tosses in Clementine and Troy's direction. "He's free now. Go on inside." The woman tells them, her voice trembling in thinly hidden frustration.

Bill approaches behind her, a hand reaching out for her shoulder. "Margaret-"

The woman walks away without another word. Bill stuffs his hand into the pocket of his sweater and huffs irritably. He turns to Troy and nods in approval upon seeing Clementine standing beside him. "You got her? Good job. Head on back to the yard now. Should be about supper time."

She sees Troy smile for the first time since she met him as he turns to leave. It doesn't make him look any less creepy.

She stares up at Bill, feeling like an ant compared to the tall leader of her new camp. He gives her a small smile and crosses his arms over his chest. "I've heard a lot about you already."

Clementine blinks in surprise. "Really?" She asks, her voice rising to an even higher pitch than normal.

He simply nods and gestures to his desk with a wave of his hand. "Come in and take a seat. We've got stuff to talk about."


	8. 1-7: Meeting Interrupted

**(Author's note: **Decided to post this today because tomorrow is going to be full of episode 4 hype with the trailer! After this, two chapters left! Or one, if I decide to merge them together.)

* * *

Bill's office is cluttered and messy, with tacky red-and-yellow striped wallpaper, a sand-colored carpeted floor, and pages upon pages of writing pasted onto the walls. A desk, equally as disorganized as the rest of the room, sits in front of two large windows overlooking the main floor of the Howe's. She makes her way over to a blue rolling chair while Bill takes a seat across from her, cleaning a few loose pieces of paper off from his desk and shoving them into a cabinet for the time being.

She feels more like a child than ever at that moment, her legs so short that they weren't even close to touching the floor as she sat and waited for Bill to say something to her.

He clears his throat. "You're probably wondering why I brought you in here. Am I right?"

Clementine nods. She links her fingers together in her lap, fighting the urge to bring them up to her mouth and chew at the nails. Old habits die hard.

"I heard about what happened in that store earlier today. To be honest, I didn't believe Tyler when he told me about a nine-year-old girl takin' on three lurkers by herself."

_Tyler? _Clementine thinks. _Victor's dad… Victor probably told him. Or maybe Sarah, since their families hang out a lot… _

Bill places his hands on the table, leaning in close to look her in the eye. She doesn't look away, as much as she feels the urge to. "But then when he told me your name, I remembered meeting you and your group a few days ago. You were nervous, but you looked me straight in the eye and shook my hand firmly. I was impressed. I still am impressed." He settles back in his chair, folding his arms together over his chest.

Clementine bites her lips, feeling her face heat up at his praise. "I… Thank you…?" She had never been one for accepting compliments.

"How'd you do it?" He asks.

She blinks. "You mean, how I killed them?" He nods and she scratches her nose, trying to remember what she had done. "Well…it was hard. I told the other kids to get back and found a hammer and just…went for it."

"A hammer? Not even a gun?" He asks, his eyebrows rising.

Clementine shakes her head and laughs. "It would have been _way _easier with a gun."

"You know how to shoot?"

She shrugs uneasily. "My friend Lee taught me." The smile that had appeared on her face from his praise began to slip at the mention of her old guardian, her mood darkening as usual when she let details of her past slip.

Bill's voice brings her back from her gloom. "Tell me more about yourself. Tavia told me she found your group in Georgia, holed up in some store."

Clementine purses her lips, not completely sure if she wanted to trust any more people with stories about her past. She had been sticking to sharing short snippets with the people she had met so far, not wanting them to get too attached to her or vice versa in case Christa decided one day that they needed to leave. But Bill was the _leader _of the camp. She couldn't just deny him if she wanted to keep her, Christa, and Omid in his good graces. "Well… I'm from Georgia, near Atlanta. I was alone when it all began. My parents left on vacation and my babysitter…she got attacked early on. I hid in my treehouse for a few days until this man found me."

"This Lee fellow?" Bill asks, clearly having put two-and-two together.

She nods and continues, "Lee and I ended up heading to Macon and we met a group there. We all spent a few months together but...it didn't work out. And then it was just me and Christa and Omid in the end." Clementine turns away and gazes out of the window. Dinner had already started and food was being served to her group in the garden center. Other survivors, meanwhile, picked up their own meals and found places to hang out and chat while they ate up.

"I'll tell you about myself, if you'd like." She snaps her head back to look at Bill, who shrugs.

Clementine leans back in her own chair and nods, interested to hear about where the leader of such a large camp had come from and how he had created all of this in the first place. "Yeah… Sure."

He places his arms on the desk and thinks for a moment before beginning his story. "Before all this, I used to be an engineer."

She cuts in before she can stop herself, brightening at the thought of her father's old job. "My dad was an engineer, too!"

"Small world, huh?" He replies, a small smile working his way onto his face. "It's how I got electricity running through here, along with running water. This place has got all we need." He stands up and faces the window behind his desk, scanning the store intently. "My wife and I were locals-"

"You have a wife?" Clementine asks.

He only briefly turns to face her, his smile gone. He shakes his head and goes back to gazing out at his camp. "Yeah. She was the woman who answered the door for you. Real polite one I married." Bill replies shortly.

Clementine winces, realizing too late that Bill's wife – Margaret, she recalls – was a sore spot for the man. They must be going through adult issues, like Christa and Omid sometimes had during the long and lonely winter months. But Clementine was certain that Christa and Omid could work through anything.

"Back to what I was saying," Bill says, turning back around and perching on the corner of the desk this time. "We lived around here. Came here often, seeing as how it was all part of my job. The owners bailed when it all started, which I saw as a wasted opportunity. This place is strong, big enough to house plenty of others and also with all the supplies necessary to protect them. So I gathered up whatever people remained and took 'em here."

"Is it…hard? Running this place?" Clementine asks, looking at the man closely. Underneath his strong demeanor, she can't help but notice the heavy bags under his eyes and the paleness to his skin. She definitely didn't envy his position as leader of such a large group of people, many of them defenseless children and adults.

Bill scratches his chin and sighs. "I won't lie to you. Sometimes, it is. But some people are just made to lead. Even if it includes a few sleepless nights or long training sessions with guards, I have an obligation to keep this place running. In fact, we all have an obligation here." He meets her eyes as he says this. "I told you and your friends before. We all play a role, a _vital _role, in keeping the human race alive. My role is to provide a safe place for survivors to live. Now, your role… _Your_ role is more complex than that."

Her eyes widen in bewilderment. "Me?"

He nods and begins to explain. "Your generation is tasked with leading us all out of this. Men my age, we aren't going to be alive for much longer, sad as it is to say. We need to pass on the torch to someone who has adapted to this new environment."

Clementine narrows her eyes. "That's a lot of pressure to put on a kid."

"You've proven yourself more than capable of working well under pressure." Bill holds her gaze before standing up from off the table and pacing around the desk and her chair.

"Tell me… Have you ever seen a group like this one? Or ever been part of one?" He asks.

Clementine shakes her head. "Never… I mean, my old group just got smaller and smaller. But when we went to Savannah-"

"You traveled from Macon to Savannah?"

"Actually, we took a train." She smiles, remembering how awesome it had been to actually be riding a train. Though the situation had been dampened by the loss of Carley and Lilly, and then the deaths of Duck and Katjaa… She shakes her head to ward off such thoughts. "In Savannah, there was this group, Crawford. Molly, this lady we met, told us that when everything went bad, they kicked out a bunch of people – sick people, old people, even kids! – just so everyone could be safe inside."

"What happened to 'em?" Bill comes to a stop, staring at her expectantly.

"We broke into their camp to get some supplies for Omid. He hurt his leg and was really sick. But when we got inside, it was…gone. They were all walkers." She crosses her arms. "Lee never got to tell me what happened there… Christa probably found out, but she never said anything about it, so…"

"This Lee… Were you close to him?"

The question knocks the air out of her with its suddenness. Months had passed and yet she could always reduce herself to tears with just the slightest mention of his name or the quickest glance at his photo, still hidden safely in her backpack alongside her drawing of Kenny and Katjaa and Duck.

Some words or situations were just associated so strongly with the man. Every time she went to take a shot at a walker, she would remember the encouraging words he had said into her ear as he steadied the gun in her nervous hands. Every time she took scissors to her hair, unwilling to let anyone else do the task, she couldn't help but remember the _snip snip snip _as he inexpertly shortened her bushy hair to a safer length back on the train. Was she close to him? The answer was so obvious it was laughable.

She closes her eyes, willing herself to not let anything show – no emotions, pent-up deep inside; no memories of better days; nothing that would make her seem her age around a man who seemed to admire her for her unusual strength. "Yeah. We were…close. He took care of me. He taught me how to survive. He saved me from this…this _awful _man." She spats, filled with a sudden, overwhelming hatred for the stranger on the radio that had ruined _everything_. "And then he…he died for me."

Clementine stops herself from continuing, her throat closing up and leaving her mute.

Bill sits back down in his seat and respectfully looks out the window as he waits for her to gather her thoughts and emotions back together. When she reopens her eyes, he immediately begins to speak again. "It hasn't been easy for you. I knew that the moment I set eyes on you and your friends. But that only adds on to the potential I see in you."

"Potential?" She asks, rolling her eyes at the thought.

"Clementine, I'm gonna be honest with you. You probably have seen more shit than most of the adults here." _First time I've heard him swear_, Clementine observes. "Half of these people don't even realize just how bad it is out there. Sheltered lot, they are. But you know what to expect, and more importantly, you can actually defend yourself pretty well."

"I guess…" Clementine muses, beginning to open up to his words.

"That's exactly why I want to teach you more." Bill says.

"What?" And now she was lost again.

He laces his fingers together over the desk, urging her to listen to his point. "You're a strong girl, definitely the strongest kid I've ever met. I would be an idiot to not want to make you even _stronger. _Knowing how to shoot a gun and wave a hammer around is great, but it takes more than that to survive nowadays."

She sighs. "I know… Christa and Omid were teaching me stuff, but then we all had to start focusing on the baby and food and where we planning on going… They didn't have the time."

Bill smiles. It looks oddly out of place on his rugged face. "Well, I got plenty of time to teach you."

"But you must be really busy around camp-"

"Tell me, Clementine, have you ever felt weak?" Bill interrupts her to ask. "'Cause me, I know I have, hard as you might find that to believe."

_When have I ever _not _felt weak? _She asks herself, thinking back to all the times where she was stuck between a walker and a hard place with no one there to save her. "Yeah, of course…" Or being ushered into a slaughterhouse and having to cover her eyes and internally scream at the top of her lungs as Kenny dropped the saltlick on Larry's head. Or…

"This man…he had just lost his family. We talked over my walkie-talkie and he said he had my parents in Savannah. And I believed him. But then he took me and kept me locked in a room and said we were gonna be some…_happy family._" She shakes her head and looks down at her hands in her lap. "I felt _weak_ and I felt _stupid_ and it was all my fault."

"Listen, Clementine, that ain't your fault."

"Yes, it _was_." Clementine insists. Over and over she would always try and tell herself the same thing, that she wasn't at fault for her kidnapping and for Lee's death, but she could never believe herself. Not when the simple truth is that if she had never talked to that man, if she hadn't been so naïve to believe a complete stranger over the man who had grown to become a father figure to her, all of them would have been somewhere safer over the sea. _Alive. _

"You are young and you make mistakes. Some mistakes end up costing you…everything. But all you have to do is learn not to make 'em." Bill says.

The girl laughs bitterly. "That is _way_ easier said than done."

"Probably." He gives her a smile that she can't help but return. Part of her feels embarrassed at revealing so much of her past and her emotions, but she feels herself growing less intimidated by this man. "So, whaddya say?"

_I don't want to make a mistake like that ever again. I don't want Omid or Christa or any of the new people I've met to die because of me. I don't want to be backed into a corner with no one there to help me ever again. I don't want any cannibal farmer to grab my hair and use me as a shield. I want to be _strong. "Okay." She answers.

Bill smiles approvingly and reaches out a hand for her to shake. Clementine does so, a feeling of confidence she had never really experienced before rushing through her. "Alright. We'll start soon. Now, Dinner's nearly over, so if you-"

He's cut off by static from his radio, and a female voice calling out for him worriedly. "Bill? Bill, you there?!"

Bill unclips his walkie-talkie from his hip holster and brings it up to his mouth, his eyes narrowing in concern. "Yeah, I'm here."

"You need to get over to the wall, _now. _A herd of 'em just broke in."


	9. 1-8: Here

**(Author's note: **Next chapter should be the last one for episode 1, and should definitely be posted before episode 4 of TWDG Season 2 comes out! Hurrah!)

* * *

Clementine watches, wide-eyed, as Bill curses under his breath and stands up from his chair. The leader runs a hand through his brown hair and grabs a small gun from one of the desk cabinets. "How many did you see? We got any wounded?"

"I-I'm not sure. I think I saw Luke take someone over to Carlos-" Carlos was Sarah's dad and also one of the camp's doctors. Sarah spoke of him all the time, and had told Clementine story after story of her dad's heroic deeds: helping Sarah whenever she took a tumble, taking care of their old dog when it got hurt, patching up injured survivors…

"Shit. I'll be right there. Bill out." Bill releases the button to his radio and slips it into his pocket, beginning to make his way out the door. He stops when he realizes that she's still sitting there, confused and anxious over what had been said over the radio. "Head back to the yard and get someone to shut the gate. You'll be safe there until we get this sorted out."

She nods, trying to appear less troubled than she really feels. Bill runs out of the room and down the stairs, heading towards the door that leads to the wall. Clementine picks up her own pace, not wanting to get caught by any walkers that could possibly break in without a weapon. Not after the damn comic store earlier that day.

So focused on heading back to the others, she doesn't notice Luke until it's too late. She crashes into his side and nearly sends both of them crashing to the floor.

"Sorry-"

"Shit, sorry-"

They both apologize at the same time. Clementine notices that Luke appears out of breath and even a bit sweaty in this often-chilly springtime weather. _He was probably running when I bumped into him like an idiot_, Clementine thinks. She then notices what he's holding in his arm; or, to be more precise, _who. _

"Is that… Is that Jake?" Clementine asks, bringing a hand up to her mouth in shock. Jake looks pale, much paler than usual. His bangs, normally resting flat on his forehead, cover his closed eyes as he lays his head on Luke's chest and groans.

Luke winces and looks around them before whispering, "Yeah. I gotta take him to Carlos."

"What happened?!" She asks, her voice shaking as she puts two and two together. Bill had told the guard over the radio that someone had been injured when the herd had broken in. But why had Jake even been at the wall? How did he get hurt in the first place? And most importantly, how bad was it?

"We ain't got time! I'll tell ya after we get him to Carlos, okay?" Luke says.

He begins to hurry over to where the first aid station must be, not protesting as Clementine hurries to catch up so they're practically sprinting side-by-side. By the time they get to the designated medical site, the former customer's support area of the store, they're both panting in exhaustion.

Sarah's dad is a tall, stern-faced man, who apparently always seemed to wear flannel shirts, to the displeasure of his daughter. He had probably been informed by another guard about the herd since he was already prepared to treat any wounded persons as they walked in. "Lay him down on that table over there." He demands, snapping on some gloves and pulling out a box of medical supplies from one of the cabinets by the wall.

Luke gently places Jake on the table, which the doctor had covered with a soft white bed sheet. Carlos nudges Luke to the side and nods at him gratefully. "I got it from here."

The younger man backs away, nearly bumping into Clementine, who had been standing beside him and trying to get a peak at her friend. "What happened to him?" Clementine asks once again, demanding an answer this time.

He sighs and runs a hand through his messy hair. "The kid was hangin' out at the comic store, even though I specifically told y'all to stay outta there. Some lurkers managed to break in again and I heard him scream and went runnin' after him. And then I took him here as fast as I could."

Clementine places her head in her hands and groans in exasperation. "_Dammit, _Jake…" She mutters, cursing her new friend for his stupid ideas and rash actions. Of course he would go back to his favorite spot, even after being told _not _to head back there anymore. Of course he would risk getting himself attacked over _Iron-Man _and _Spider-Man_ and_ Invincible_, when he could have been having dinner with his family or Victor or any of the other kids…

"Luke, get over here…" Carlos hisses, backing away from the boy lying on the bed and shaking his head.

Clementine follows Luke over to Carlos's side. Carlos notices her there with a disapproving look but does nothing to make her leave. "What's wrong, doc?" Luke asks.

The doctor purses his lips before lifting up Jake's shirt, revealing a bloody, painful-looking bite just above his hip.

She swears she can feel all the air exit her lungs; her heart stops beating and then picks up in rhythm right after, strong enough to burst through her chest in a bloody mess. But no matter how hard she tries, she can't look away, can't even force herself to close her eyes. _Jake… _

Luke covers his eyes with one of his hands and paces around beside Carlos. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, _fuck. _What're we gonna do here?"

"I don't know. We've never had a bite victim before…especially not one this…" Carlos trails off, glancing down at his bloody hands in disgust before yanking them off.

After tossing the dirty gloves in a small wastebasket, he turns back to Luke and shrugs, looking as helpless as they all feel. "I need to talk to his parents. And Bill. Do you know where they are?"

"They're probably all out at the wall tryin' to get control of this herd. Bill said that wall would be enough to keep 'em out..."

"He can't promise us everything, Luke. Those…things are uncontrollable."

Clementine finds herself unable to keep up with their conversation, too focused on her friend's pale skin, the curse that had just placed on him and his family and – _oh God, Jessica… Oh no. _

"He has a sister. She's probably looking for him right now." She mumbles, wrapping her arms tightly around her torso.

"_Shit…_" Luke sighs, running a hand down his face.

"Do you know where she is?" Carlos asks.

She shrugs. "I-I don't know. She might be in her…home, I guess. Room? But I've never been there." Clementine feels more useless than ever, watching one of her new friends die right in front of her eyes and not being able to help, not knowing where any of his family could be, not being there in the first place to stop him from doing something so stupidand reckless.

Luke rubs his chin. "I think I might be able to find her, this place ain't _that_ big anyway."

"Luke." Carlos says, practically glaring at Clementine now. "_She_ should go."

Clementine narrows her eyes right back at him, unafraid. "I'm staying. I'm not letting him be alone during this."

"It's not safe for you here. He could turn at any moment!" The doctor retorts. She can't help but see his point – she remembers when Lee brought back that man, Ben's old teacher, with no leg. He had turned only minutes later and would have nearly killed Katjaa and Lee if it weren't for Carley stepping in. But she also assumes that the time it takes for someone to turn into a walker varies from person to person. Christa had told her that Lee had made it nearly a day, had pushed himself and _cut off his own arm _to give himself all the time he so desperately needed to save her.

The younger man moves so he's between them, spreading his arms out in an effort to reduce the tension. "Carlos, it's alright. Clem can stay here and I'll go find-"

"_You're _this Clementine?" Carlos asks, his eyes widening in momentary surprise.

She groans, cursing the other kids for their gossipy ways. "Yeah, I am."

Carlos gives her a suspicious look, icy enough to give her chills. "My daughter has told me a lot about you." By his tone, this isn't a good thing.

"Can we focus on the bitten boy here, please?" Luke cuts in, frustrated.

She nods, deciding to forget about the doctor and his odd dislike for her at the moment, and turns to Luke. "Her name's Jessica. She's a few years older than him, about fifteen. Uhh…she has dark hair, really long, and she's, well, Asian."

Luke hums in confirmation. "Okay, I got it. I'll be back." He pats her shoulder and meets her eyes as he finishes, "And…be safe, alright? I know he-he's your friend, but you can't stop what's gonna happen to him."

Clementine sighs and looks away. "Yeah, I know. I do. I've…I've been through this before." When Luke opens his mouth to ask her to clarify, she rolls her eyes and shoves his chest. "Go find her!"

He rushes off without another word, leaving Clementine and Carlos standing across from each other in a frigid silence. Carlos appears as if he's about to say something when the door slams open and reveals one of the guards she doesn't know the name of leaning on Tisha, another guard (and part-time volunteer teacher as well).

Carlos goes to help her immediately, taking the injured man from Tisha's side and heading towards another table across from Jake. "What happened? Is he bitten?"

Tisha says, "I don't know-"

"I tripped tryna get away from those damn things and – augh," The man groans as Carlos helps him onto the table, digging his fists into his eyes in pain. "I think I twisted it, my ankle-"

As Carlos rolls up one of the legs of the man's pants, Clementine grabs a fold-up chair from the corner of the room and sets it next to where Jake lay, ignoring the adults as they continued to talk by her side. When she looks at him, she can't help but picture Duck, a boy from what felt like so long ago who had also been her friend before he got bitten. _In almost the same area, too_, she thinks, reaching a hand out to hover over the area where Jake had gotten hurt. Duck's had been a little higher up. Seeing his wound back then had nearly made her vomit, from disgust and fear and just overwhelming _loss_.

Because that was the day they had lost _everything. _Carley and Lilly and then Katjaa and Duck. Their group had been falling apart at the seams for a while; even Clementine knew that to be true at her young age, despite how much she wished and wished every night before she fell asleep that Kenny and Lilly would just get along and stop acting like children her age or even younger. A deal with some bandits that spiraled out of control had only sped up the inevitable split. But Duck had done nothing wrong. He didn't deserve to get bitten, to die at such a young age, to leave her alone in a world full of adults and monsters and take his mother, peaceful and hopeful Katjaa, with him.

And Jake certainly didn't deserve to have the same fate bestowed on him. Jake reminded her of Duck in so many ways: his hyperactivity, his jokes, his laughter, his love of comic books and boyish things. She didn't want to add his _death_ to their list of similarities.

She moves her hand down from Jake's bite mark to hold his hand, only to pull away a second later when the boy begins to cough.

Clementine scoots her chair back quick enough to almost tip it over and says, her voice shaking, "Jake… Are you alive?"

Jake continues to cough, painful little sobs working his way out of his throat. She moves closer to him once more, glad to know that he hadn't turned – _not yet _– but less than happy to see how much he was suffering. She reaches out to grab his hand again, wincing as he squeezes her fingers tightly.

"What-what's going on?! What's happ-happening to me?" Jake chokes out once his hacking dies down. His forehead is shiny with sweat and tears stream down his face, leaving his eyes puffy and red.

She looks away, catching sight of Carlos working on the injured man Tisha had brought in a few minutes ago. Tisha, meanwhile, has her walkie-talkie by her ear. The room is silent enough for Clementine to easily be able to hear what is being said over the radio: _more wounded – a few bitten – almost under control – _

Clementine turns back to Jake upon hearing him cough again, cringing as she notices the blood now staining his lips. She rolls the sleeve of her blue sweater up over her free hand and wipes the blood off gently.

"You…you're sick. Really sick." Clementine murmurs, finding herself unable to break the bad news to him.

"Where're my mom and dad? Jess?" He says, his words slurring together.

She sighs and looks over at the door. _Still no sign of Luke and Jess or his parents. _"She'll be here soon, okay? For now… I'm here." Jake closes his eyes and begins to cough again, droplets of red splashing over his and her clothes. She feels eyes burning into the side of her head and turns to see Carlos staring at her and Jake, a concerned look in his eyes. Clementine returns his stare before shaking her head and focusing back on her friend.

"I'm here."


	10. 1-9: Safe and Sound

**(Author's note: **Sorry for the long wait on this one! I hope everyone enjoyed episode 4 - I definitely did! - and will enjoy the end of episode 1 of this fic! Of course, there are no spoilers for episode 4 in this, in case anyone was trying to avoid them.)

* * *

More injured survivors fill the room, overwhelming Carlos and two other medics that had arrived upon his call for assistance over his radio. None of them are anybody Clementine really recognizes; all adults, thankfully. Most of them guards, the others civilians who had gotten cornered by walkers and had been unable to protect themselves. _It doesn't seem like this situation is getting under control anytime soon_, she thinks.

Jake had passed out minutes ago, unable to stay away due to all the pain coursing through his small body. _Probably for the best. _She snaps her head up in alarm when the door slams open and Jessica runs inside, Luke following behind her at a slower pace. "_What happened?_ Where's my brother?" Jessica demands as she spots Clementine. She comes to a stop when she finally sees Jake lying on the table, his skin as pale as a corpse and his breaths heavy and painful.

Clementine lets go of Jake's hand and stands up, unsure of what to do as Jessica begins to cry. She shrugs helplessly. "I'm sorry, Jess. I'm _so_ sorry."

Jessica turns to Clementine quickly, her narrowed eyes red from her tears. "What do you mean?! He's gonna be okay, right?" The younger girl looks down at her hands, unable to break the news to her.

Luke steps in, placing a hand on Jessica's shoulder. "He's…he's bit. And it ain't lookin' good."

Jessica shakes her head. "So? They can fix him, right? Maybe he won't turn! That's…possible, right?" Clementine and Luke exchange worried glances over Jessica's shoulder before Clementine gestures for Jess to sit down by Jake. Jess does so, sniffling as she grabs his hand.

Clementine moves back so she's standing besides Luke, both of their arms crossed as they stare at the siblings in concern. "He's not gonna make it," Clementine whispers. "Once you get bitten, it's just over."

"We can't just tell her that. No way."

"But we can't let her think he's gonna be okay… That's not fair."

"How…?" Jessica asks, her voice quiet and choked. She doesn't look away from her brother, still lying unconscious on the table.

Luke and Clementine look at the girl in surprise and guilt, hoping that she hadn't heard what they were saying to each other. Luke sighs and rubs the back of his neck. "Your brother, uh… He was hangin' out at the comic store when the first couple of 'em broke in. And that's when it happened."

Jessica covers her eyes with her free hand and shakes her head. "I _told _him…" She mumbles, unable to go on as she lets out a sob.

Knowing what the girl is going through right now, at least partly, Clementine reaches out and pats her shoulder. The older girl doesn't react, just continues to cry into her hand.

Carlos walks over to Jake's table, his face solemn. "You three have to go." He says, glancing at Luke, Clementine, and Jessica.

"What?" Clementine asks, shocked.

The doctor sighs and takes off his gloves, shoving them into the pocket of his jeans. "We need to…quarantine the area."

She furrows her eyebrows, having never heard of such a word before. "What does that even mean?"

"There are six bitten people in one room. We have no idea if one of them, or if all of them, could turn at any moment," He clarifies, gesturing around them at his sick patients strewn throughout the area. "Which is why I'm asking every healthy person to head somewhere safer."

Jessica lifts her head and stares at him with wide, worried eyes. "I-I can't just leave him here! What're you gonna do to my brother?!"

He avoids her eyes and shrugs, replying honestly, "Bill will have to decide that. But if anyone turns…" Carlos pauses and shares a look with another fellow medic working on another injured person nearby. "We'll have to deal with it."

Clementine gapes at him in disbelief. "What does he mean? What does that mean?" Jessica asks, turning to Clementine in bewilderment.

She doesn't answer, instead turning her eyes back to Jake. All of the color had drained from his skin, from his lips, and had travelled to the vividly bloody mark on his side. Jessica follows her gaze and then looks back at Carlos, at the gun holstered to his hip, and finally understands his point. "You mean…"

"Carlos, that ain't fair," Luke insists. "These people, they all got families."

"My parents aren't even here." Jessica says, her voice rising as she glares at the doctor in betrayal. "They're out there risking their _lives _to save this camp! You _can't_ just-just-"

Carlos holds up a hand to stop her and gives each of them a firm look. "All of you need to leave. It'll be safer out there, they're already getting this under control."

"Safer? But for who?" Clementine counters, crossing her arms over her chest. The doctor doesn't bother to reply and just shoos them over to the exit. She scowls but grabs Jessica's hand, pulling her away from her brother before she can even attempt to fight for her right to stay by his side. Luke comes to her aid as Jessica protests, using his strength to pull her out of the room. Carlos closes the door behind them and Clementine hears the click of the lock being slid into place.

Jessica goes limp and silent in their arms as she stares at the barrier keeping her away from Jake. Clementine keeps hold of her side even as Luke lets go, preventing her from crumpling to her knees. She rubs Jess's back and gives Luke a desperate look, as if to ask _what now?! _

Luke sighs and says, "Do ya…wanna come back with us to our place? Till all this is sorted out?"

The girl doesn't answer, just continues to stare at the closed door in front of her. He shrugs and lifts Jess's arm over his shoulder, gesturing for Clementine to do the same before leading them back to the garden area.

* * *

_The first thing Clementine notices is that the sign is still there. _

_A fading yellow arrow held up by two long wooden pillars, the words 'Travelier Motel' inscribed on the center in black ink. She and Duck had always worried about the sign falling and crushing them as they colored together or played soccer. Well, she had worried; Duck had never really worried about anything. His constant enthusiasm and optimism used to annoy her, used to make her envious. But now…_

_The last time Clementine had been here, she had fled with the others in the RV to escape from the bandits and walkers that had stormed the place after a deal gone awry. A few walkers remain still, limping their way through the fallen makeshift barrier of boards and dumpsters surrounding the motor inn. With Christa and Omid by her side, though, they manage to take the ones they can see out with little difficulty, unlike the struggle that had taken place at the pharmacy earlier. _

_Christa pants heavily and uses the sleeve of her shirt to wipe the sweat off of her forehead. Omid puts one of his arms around her in concern. "You okay, baby?" He quirks an eyebrow, his voice rising in pitch as he makes a funny face at Christa's swollen belly. "And other baby?" _

_The pregnant woman rolls her eyes and pushes him away with a single finger to his shoulder. "I'm fine. I just need some rest." _

"_There's a couch over there," Clementine says, nodding in the direction of where the old, dirty thing still remained. _

_Christa wrinkles her nose as she spots the piece of furniture. "Not exactly clean, but it'll do." She begins to make her way over to the couch, Omid happily trailing behind her. The couch was soggy from the winter rain and filthy from abandonment, but Christa and Omid settle down with no complaints. _

"_I'm gonna look around." Clementine tells them, wiping the walker blood off her knife on her jeans. _

_Christa gives her an assessing look. "By yourself?" _

"_I'll go with you if you want, Clem." Omid volunteers as he begins to rise from his seat. _

_She shakes her head and waves a hand at Omid. "No, I can do it. And you guys need rest anyway, right?" Omid shrugs and gives in easily, plopping back down beside Christa and raising an arm over her shoulder. _

"_If you say so. But call for us at the first sign of trouble, alright?" Christa says sternly. Clementine nods and Christa allows herself to relax and lay her head on Omid's shoulder, smiling as he begins to say something about the last motel they stayed at while on their road trip. _

_Clementine, meanwhile, makes her way over to Lilly's former room. She kicks the door open fully, gripping her knife as she slowly inches inside. She jumps upon hearing a growl from the corner of the room and barely manages to dodge the walker as it comes barreling at her. She hits the wall hard, hissing briefly before shrugging off the pain and focusing on the walker still after her. _

_She allows the walker to get closer to her, its outstretched arms reaching for any part of her that it could grab, before darting to the right, dodging the small table red there. The walker bumps into the wall and is momentarily dazed, allowing her to come up behind it and stab it in the skull one, two, and three times. _

_The walker slides down the wall and lands in a heap on the carpeted floor as she yanks out her knife and backs away. Clementine shakes her head and walks over to Lilly's old bed, plopping down on the mattress so she can briefly catch her breath. She wipes her knife on the blanket and leaves it lying there as she turns her attention to the bedside table. _

_She slides open the drawer and pulls out a bible. Every hotel or motel room she had ever been in seemed to have one of these, though she had never really paid them any mind. Her parents hadn't been very religious, though Clementine personally believed – or wanted to believe – in the idea of a heaven somewhere out there, whether it be in the clouds above or an area no one alive knew existed. A wonderful place to live forever after such a tiring, awful life down on earth. _

_Clementine flips open the bible and spots a few notes Lilly must have scribbled down in a hurry, calculations and long, complicated names of medicine brands. Nothing really interesting or useful. _

_Before placing the book back in its original spot, she notices the objects that had been underneath it. She smiles upon seeing a few hair thingies – hairbands, Christa had called them – scattered throughout the drawer and picks them all up. _

'_Thanks, Lilly,' She thinks as she shoves the hairbands into the front pocket of her backpack. _

_After shutting the cabinet, she grabs her knife and leaves Lilly's room, now heading for the stairs. She and Lee had shared a room up here, the same room she opens now. When no walker lunges at her, she steps inside cautiously, her knife raised just in case. _

_The room is empty, decorated as plainly as all the other rooms in the motel. It had been a twin room, two single beds up against the wall for her and Lee to rest on separately. Neither of them had ever bothered to clean up after themselves, so the beds are still as messy as they left them months and months ago. Clementine doesn't bother to touch her side of the room, moving instead to Lee's. _

_He had insisted on taking the bed closest to the door, saying that if a walker managed to break in, she would be safe. _

"_But then you could get hurt!" She had argued, but Lee had just smiled and patted her shoulder and told her that he would be fine. And she had believed him. _

_Clementine sits on his bed and breathes in deeply before opening the cabinet beside it and looking inside. She pulls out a few pieces of paper, placed right above the usual bible, and holds them up in front of her face one at a time. A drawing she had made of Lee and Carley holding hands, Lilly and Kenny arguing in a rather exaggerated manner (Lee had taken the drawing from her, saying that he didn't want Kenny and Lilly arguing over who got to keep her hard work – "Lilly with the razor is a good touch, though," he had said, smiling.), and finally, her sitting on Lee's shoulders. _

_The last one had been hard to draw back then, but now it's just hard to look at without wanting to cry. She looks at the smile drawn on Lee's face before zipping open her backpack and gently placing the pictures inside so they won't get wrinkled, right alongside her photo of Lee and drawing of Kenny's family. _

_When she looks back into the drawer, she finds something beside the bible. Upon taking it out, she realizes that it's a camcorder. "The camcorder Carley gave to Lee…" She mumbles, remembering the night of their escape from the St. John's where Carley had given Lee some batteries for the device in question. _

_Carley had also given her batteries for her walkie-talkie. Which, in hindsight, wasn't a good idea, considering whom she would talk to over the stupid thing just a few days later… _

_Clementine lays back down on the bed and stares at the camcorder in her hand for a long moment. Was there even anything on it? And if there was, did she really want to see the contents inside? She takes a deep breath before hitting the play button below the screen. _

_She gasps when Lee's face, grainy and faded from the quality of the recorder, appears on the small screen. His mouth moves but no words come out, and she quickly upps the volume, desperate to hear his voice. _

"_-said it would be good to document my thoughts, so I guess that's what I'll do." Clementine nearly stops breathing as she hears him speak. It had been months since the last time she had heard his voice, and even then, he had been in so much pain, just barely holding on long enough to get her to safety. _

_Lee is sitting in his bed, his back propped up against the headboard, as he awkwardly records himself. "Ever since the St. John's, it's just gone from bad to worse. Kenny and Lilly can't stand each other, not after what Kenny did to Larry. Hell, I definitely don't miss the man, but…" He shrugs. "And with the bandits attackin' us, this place isn't going to last us any much longer. Kenny's about done fixin' up the RV, and he did promise Clem and I a ride to the coast. We might not be on the…best terms right now, but he and Katjaa care about Clem, at least." _

_He sighs and rubs his face. Clementine notices the bags forming under his eyes, the thinness to his face even after they found all that food in the car in the woods. "Clem… I'm worried about her. She's always been hard to read, but I know what she saw at the St. John's affected her. I shouldn't have let her go there, but I just wanted to find a safe place for her and for Duck and everyone else." _

_Clementine's hands begin to shake as he continues to speak. "With her parents…gone, I'm the only one she's got. And her, well, she's the only _I've _got. I'm not her dad. We both know that. __But at this point, she's the daughter I never got to have and I'll do _anything _to protect her. If anyone tries to get to her, they'll have to go through me because...nothing's getting between us."_

* * *

When they get to the garden area, the place is empty, the only light provided by the fire in the center. Luke pulls down the fence so that it nearly touches the floor, allowing other survivors in but keeping any walkers out, and stands watch nearby. Clementine, meanwhile, sits Jessica down in front of the fire and sits between the crying girl and Christa.

Christa eyes the gate worriedly, one hand rubbing her belly. "They all went out to help with the herd. Tavia said they've never seen one this big…" She glances at Jessica and whispers to Clementine, "What happened to her?"

Clementine sighs as she watches Jessica curl up into herself in grief, burying her head in her knees and trying to breathe. "Her brother…he got hurt when the walkers broke in."

The pregnant woman's eyes go wide as she realizes what Clementine is implying: her brother was bitten and wasn't going to make it. She purses her lips and shakes her head. "This place might not be as safe as we thought it was."

Clementine stares at the flames as they start to die out and finds herself unable to respond.

* * *

_Omid opens the door slowly and peeks inside. "Clem, you ready to go?" _

_When there is no response, he and Christa exchange worried looks and step inside, their weapons drawn and ready. They pause when they see Clementine lying on the bed closest to the door, her eyes hidden beneath one of her arms and her hand clutching something tightly against her chest. _

_They stare at her for a moment before backing away and shutting the door again, deciding to give her some space, at least for now._

* * *

**Next time on People Like Us****, Episode 2: A House Divided**

"How are you settling in?"

"This place is… better than anywhere else I've stayed in a long time, at least."

* * *

"It's not stealing. It's...borrowing. Just for a little bit. And it's necessary."

* * *

"She's my little girl. She's all I have left and I would ask that you stay away from her."

"She's gonna have to grow up sometime."

"You do_ not_ know what she needs!"

* * *

"I hate feeling useless. I need something to do, Bill."

"That can be arranged."


	11. 2-1: Upgraded

**EPISODE 2: A HOUSE DIVIDED **

_Clementine steps into the kitchen, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes with one hand while the other grabs a chair from the table and scoots it over in front of the ceiling-high set of cabinets. She climbs on top of the chair and opens one of the drawers, peering inside and debating over the very few food options presented to her. A can of beans, a few granola bars, a little baggy of cereal – but no milk, of course… She purses her lips and reminds herself to tell Omid they needed to go on a run later, not noticing as the door opens and a figure creeps up behind her. _

_Hands grasp at her sides and she gasps, dropping the granola bar in her hand onto the counter. She grabs the can of beans and is about to put up a fight against her mystery assailant when the stranger's grip loosens and then digs in again, playfully this time. _

_She giggles despite herself as the tickling continues, turning around and shaking the hands off of her. Rolling her eyes, she drops the can on Omid's head and ignores his cry of pain as she climbs down from the chair. _

"_Shit… That hurt, Clem!" Omid says, tenderly rubbing his skull. She stoops down to pick up the beans from off the floor and takes a seat at the kitchen table beside Christa, who must have entered the kitchen along with Omid. _

_Clementine shoots him a glare. "That's what you get for scaring me!" _

"_Christa told me to do it!" Omid insists, sitting down across from the two females. "She said it was part of your training. Very 'Fight Club' of you, by the way, babe." _

"_Yeah, except not like 'Fight Club' at all." Christa says dryly, and then turns to face Clementine. "I just want you to be prepared for anything that could happen."_

"_I probably would have found a way out of it if Omid hadn't started tickling me…" The girl says, raising her knife above the can and reminding herself of what Christa had taught her. The woman had made it seem so easy, but the first time Clementine had attempted to open a can with just a knife, she had nearly cut her own hand open. Christa was so capable that it amazed her sometimes. _

_Christa watches approvingly as Clementine stabs a hole into the can and carves through the lid as much as possible before pulling out the knife and impaling the can again. "'Probably' isn't good enough, Clementine. A walker would have bitten you right then and there. And a person…" _

_Clementine pauses with her knife still lodged in the can and avoids Christa's eyes, suddenly fascinated with the contents of the label pasted on the metal container. Neither Christa nor Omid knew about what had happened in the Marsh House, just that Lee had managed to get her out of there but she had been the only one to get out of Savannah. But if Christa knew what she had done to that awful man… _

"_You need to know how to defend yourself from anybody, especially bad people – _especially_ bad men." Christa continues. Omid grimaces at the uncomfortable subject but doesn't attempt to comment. _

_She purses her lips and pulls her knife back out, putting all her strength into the next stab. "I know. I do. You're right." _

"_As always," Omid says. He sends Christa a loving smile, successfully lifting the tension in the room. Christa returns his smile and reaches out to grab his hand, lacing their fingers together over the table. They had been growing more and more affectionate as Christa's pregnancy advanced, but Clementine found she didn't really mind since they never tried to make her feel left out. It only made her a little uncomfortable, really, because, well, _gross.

_Clementine pries open the lid of the can and pauses before she can reach her hand inside. She holds the can out to Christa. "Are you hungry, Christa?" _

_The pregnant woman shakes her head. "No, you eat up. You're gonna need to keep up your strength for when we start training later." _

"_Here, Christa, I'll get you something." Omid disentangles their hands and stands up from the table, heading over towards the cabinets. _

"_Sure _you _don't need a chair?" Christa teases him. Omid lets out a sarcastic laugh, but nonetheless has to stand on his tiptoes to reach a granola bar that Clementine had shoved toward the back of the cupboard. _

_Clementine stares down at the can in her hand for a long moment before shoveling a handful of beans into her mouth, willing herself to just stop overthinking things. At least for a little bit._

* * *

She wakes up to a boot hitting her side.

Her eyes snap open at the gentle kick and meet Troy's. _Just the person I want to see first thing in the morning… _She thinks, sending the man a glare.

Troy narrows his eyes right back at her. "Come on, girlie, up and at 'em."

Clementine blinks up at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"It's your lucky day. You're gettin' out of this dump." He says. Clementine's eyes widen as she realizes what he means – they must have finally found room for her, Omid, and Christa outside of the garden area.

A month had passed since she and the others had first arrived at the Howe's, and a month since the herd had passed through and taken several survivors with it. Despite this incident, Christa had voted in favor of staying with Bill, mostly because of how close she was to giving birth. No way could she or the baby survive outside of camp, not without medical assistance from Carlos and the other medics. So they were there to stay, at least until the baby was born and healthy enough to travel along with them.

But even then, Clementine wondered, how would they be able to keep it safe? Warm, protected, not in threat of starvation? Part of her knew that despite what Christa said, they would be staying here for much longer than they planned.

"Kid, you hearin' me or what? Hurry the fuck up!" Troy hisses. She rolls her eyes and stands up from the mattress, deciding not to make Troy even grumpier than he usually was.

As she packs up the few belongings she has back into her backpack, she glances around the room she, Christa, and Omid had been residing in for a few weeks. Nick's family and Luke had been moved out a week ago, and while Tavia had brought in a few new people to take their spots, the garden center had become much more quiet. She had never realized how much the "Weekly Randall Family Fights" – as Luke had called them – had livened this place up until she wasn't able to witness them firsthand.

She notices Christa sleeping in her bunk and frowns. "Aren't you going to wake her up, too?" She asks Troy.

The guard scoffs. "Her? She ain't movin' out."

Clementine nearly drops her backpack in shock. "What do you mean? I thought – Omid and Christa and I were gonna get our own-"

"I'm only followin' orders here, kid. Bill said you're the only one movin' out. Just hurry the fuck up, I ain't got all day!" With that, Troy turns his back on her and begins making his way towards the exit, clearly expecting her to follow along. Clementine slings her backpack over her shoulder and sends a worried glance over at Christa before slipping her hat on and hurrying to catch up.

They walk through the halls of the home improvement store, now bustling with fellow survivors as the morning comes to a close. She spots Victor sitting down by himself, his back propped up against a shelf of various tools. When she sends him a small smile, he waves back belatedly, seemingly lost in thought. Ever since Jake… Clementine sighs and brushes the thought from off her mind, quickening her steps so she's side-by-side with Troy.

He ends up taking her to a room close to the first aid station, which used to be the costumer support area of the Howe's. Troy opens the door and, when she does nothing, puts a hand on her shoulder and shoves her inside. "Come on, girl, we ain't got all day."

Inside, the room – probably a former office – is small, with two beds shoved close together at one wall and another bed pushed into the other corner. Along with the mattresses are two bean bag chairs, one pink and the other blue.

Sitting on the pink one is Sarah, who grins when she sees Clementine enter the room. "Clem! You're here!" She stands up, dropping the book she had been reading in the process. "Isn't this great? We're gonna be living together! That's so cool!"

Clementine smiles back before she notices Carlos standing up from where he had been working on something over a desk propped up underneath a window looking over the rest of the store. She resists the urge to sigh as he crosses his arms. "Yeah, Sarah, that's…great." She says.

Troy pushes her to the side and nods at Carlos. "You got it from here, Doc? Bill needs me for somethin'." Carlos waves him away without a word, moving over to a few cabinets next to what must have be his bed.

As the door closes behind Troy, Sarah takes it upon herself to give Clementine a tour of her and her dad's room. "This is where dad and I sleep, this is where we keep some food, y'know, just in case we get hungry before dinner, that's my dad's desk-" Clementine nods along, not really paying attention with so much already on her mind.

"Sarah," Carlos interrupts her, reaching down and putting a hand over her shoulder. He hands her something wrapped into a bundle - _probably medical supplies_, Clementine notes. "Can you take these over to Lucina? She should be working right now."

Sarah nods and says a cheery goodbye to both of them before walking out of the room. Clementine makes her way over to her new bed, taking off her backpack and laying it down on top of the mattress. The silence grows unbearable. She looks up at Carlos impatiently. "Please just say whatever you're gonna say."

Carlos nods and crosses his arms. "I don't want you hanging around with my daughter."

"We've been friends for a month. It's kind of too late for that." She retorts, beginning to unpack her things. "And besides, I didn't even_ know_ I was going to be moving in here. I thought I was gonna be living with Christa and Omid…"

"I know, but Bill wanted you moved in here." Clementine reminds herself to ask Bill of this when she sees him later that day. "I don't know what you've been through before you joined this camp, but I don't want you exposing my daughter to any of it."

She opens her mouth to speak, but Carlos continues on. "We were lucky to have joined so soon into all this. She never got to see just how awful it is outside of camp. If Sarah knew what it was like out there…" He purses his lips and shakes his head to ward off the thought. "She's my little girl. She's all I have left and I would ask that you stay away from her."

Clementine stares at the doctor for a long moment. Part of her wanted to just give in and agree to get him off her back, but the other part of her, the part of her that had never forgotten Chuck's words to her, the part of her that had seen two kids near her and Sarah's age die... That part of her knew that she couldn't just leave Sarah to march toward her own inevitable death.

"She has to grow up at some point," She tells Carlos gently. "I'm younger than her and even I know that."

"You do _not _know what she needs!" Carlos exclaims, making her flinch back in surprise.

She bites down on her lip before setting her shoulders and shaking her head. "I had someone who-" Before she can continue, the door opens and Sarah walks back in.

"I'm back! Mrs. Figueroa said thanks, by the way." Sarah doesn't seem to notice the tension in the room, so Clementine shuts her mouth and goes back to unpacking her things. She pulls out a pair of jeans and a pink shirt, deciding that it was about time for her to change into a new set of clothes. At least the pink wasn't too bright, or had any embarrassing patterns printed on it; she didn't exactly want to look even younger than she really was when she had training with Bill later that day.

Carlos looks away from her and gives his daughter a smile. "Thank you, Sarah. I should probably head out to work."

Sarah nods, looking a bit disappointed but understanding. Her father was a busy man, after all, being the most experienced doctor in the entire camp. Carlos throws Clementine one last look but doesn't say anything as he walks out of the room. But Clementine knows their conversation is far from over.

"What are you gonna do today, Clem?" Sarah asks, sitting down next to her on her bed.

Clementine zips up her backpack and places it on the floor next to her new sleeping area. "I have a lesson with Bill today."

"Again? I don't know how you can just be friends with him like that. He looks so scary."

She shrugs. After a month of hanging out with the man, he wasn't exactly so intimidating to her anymore. It helped that he saw her as somewhat of an equal, rather than just another little kid like all the other adults she knew did. "I dunno, he's not really scary to me. Maybe it's just his voice?"

"Not to mention he's the leader!" Sarah adds.

Clementine smiles. "Yeah, that too." She looks down at the clothes in her hands and sighs. "I wish Wendy had given me better clothes…"

Sarah grabs the pink shirt and holds it up in front of Clementine's torso, laughing as Clementine grimaces. "I don't know… I think pink is a nice color!" Clementine takes her shirt back and frowns.

"Her jeans are gonna be way too long for me, though. But at least they'll be clean." She glances back at Sarah and says, "What are you gonna do?"

Sarah bites her lip and thinks. "I dunno. There's a lesson today, but it's _boring_ there without you." Clementine looks down into her lip and feels a bit guilty. She hadn't realized that, as she spent more time with Bill, it meant less time with Sarah and the other kids. And those other kids were already going through enough after what had happened.

"You should go to school." Clementine suggests. "Victor should be there, and he's your friend, right? And Wendy, and Maya, and…" She trails off, unable to bring herself to mention the last member of their little group.

Jessica hadn't attended a lesson in weeks, not since her brother had died in the herd attack. She probably wouldn't be attending today, either, but if anyone needed a friend right now, it was her.

The Latina nods in understanding. "Yeah… I guess I will."

Clementine stands up and waves goodbye before heading off to one of the bathrooms to change. And after that, it was off to the wall to meet up with Bill.

* * *

**(Author's note: **After the longest break ever - sorry for that, by the way - we return with the start of a new episode! Thanks for waiting so long, I hope you enjoyed this chapter nonetheless. :D)


	12. 2-2: A Great Addition

Clementine opens the door that leads out to the wall, running a hand down her pink shirt in an attempt to smooth down the wrinkles and creases. A few people were outside working on fixing up and improving the barrier. She didn't really know most of their names, but she recognized Reggie, the Pakistani man who was close friends with Alvin and his wife, Rebecca.

She comes to a stop in front of Reggie and waves her hand at him. "Hi, Reggie."

"Oh, hey Clementine!" Reggie says, twisting his neck around to face her as he attempts to hammer a piece of wood into the barricade.

"Do you need any help?" Clementine asks, watching as Reggie fails to keep the piece of wood still as he tries to hammer a nail into one of the corners.

Reggie laughs and nods. "Definitely. Could you, uh, hold that side for me?" Clementine does as he says, raising an eyebrow as Reggie swings the hammer and hits his thumb rather than the nail.

"Are you…okay?" She asks as Reggie hisses and waves his arm around to try and lessen the pain.

Reggie sighs. "Yeah. I'm just not very good at this kind of stuff, y'know? You can probably already tell." _Definitely can tell_, Clementine thinks to herself, but she gives him an encouraging smile nonetheless.

"It's okay. Just keep trying." Clementine tells him. She glances around at the others working around her, and then remembers what she came out here for. _Shoot, I'm late… _

Her thoughts are interrupted by the triumphant noise Reggie makes as he successfully nails one corner of the plank to the wall. "Guess these hands aren't so useless after all!" He brags. Clementine lets go of the slab of wood and it swings downward, but luckily, the nail keeps it from falling down. Reggie turns to her in confusion. "What's wrong, Clem?"

She gives him an apologetic look. "Bill's waiting for me, I've gotta go."

Reggie winces. "Shit, I'm sorry, Clem. Thanks for helping me, though. We make a good team, right?"

_You and I, we're a team, you know? _

Clementine's breath hitches at the memory and she goes quiet. Reggie glances at her and sees her head tilted down, the blue bill of her hat concealing her face from his view. "What's wrong?" He asks, confused at her sudden switch in emotion.

She shakes her head and finally meets his eyes, giving him a strained smile. "It's nothing, I - I just don't wanna be late. I'll…see you later." He calls out a goodbye as she rushes away, heading towards the usual meeting spot – the far end of the wall, away from everyone else's prying eyes.

As she rounds the corner, she hears a familiar voice – female, hushed. Her eyebrows furrow as she spots Rebecca and Bill standing close to each other, the woman's hand resting on his arm as she tells him something that Clementine can't make out from the distance. They don't notice her until she comes to a stop and awkwardly knocks on the wall of the building beside her in an attempt to get their attention.

Rebecca's hand is off of Bill's bicep in a flash, as if she had been caught with her hand halfway down the cookie jar. "Clementine!" She exclaims, running a jittery hand through her afro.

Clementine's eyes move between them in bewilderment. "Uh… What's going on?"

Bill casually leans back against the wall and nods at her in greeting. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Clementine. Rebecca and I here had some business to talk about."

The girl gives Rebecca a curious look, but looks away after the woman throws her a defensive glare. _Probably best not to ask, _Clementine tells herself. The couple of arguments she had witnessed between Alvin and Rebecca had taught her not to mess with the woman.

"I'll see you later, Bill." Rebecca says, glancing up at the man briefly before heading back towards the entrance into the main floor of the Howe's. Clementine waits until she's gone before she finally gathers the courage to ask about the elephant in the room.

"Is something wrong? Are she and Alvin…okay?" Clementine liked Alvin, and though she didn't really know Rebecca very well, she must be a good person to have Alvin so completely in love with her.

Bill shakes his head and waves off her concerns. "It's nothing you need to concern yourself with, Clementine. You know that Rebecca plays an important role in this community."

Clementine bites her lip. "Yeah. Okay." Rebecca was the one who made all the announcements over the PA system. Bill always said that she had a way with words, a way of making everyone listen to her every thought and demand. _They must have been talking about tomorrow's PA announcement or…something._

Bill stands up from where he had been leaning against the wall and rolls out his shoulders. "Well, enough small talk for now. Let's get to business, shall we?"

She grins. "Right." He hands her a switchblade hidden in one of his pockets, and it flips open smoothly in her grasp.

"Come on, we're heading outside." He leads her to an incomplete section of the barricade and gestures for her to step outside. Clementine makes sure to inspect the area before stepping over onto the other side and readying her knife, just in case. When Bill speaks again, his voice is approving. "Always be prepared, always think ahead. Good of you to remember that lesson."

She doesn't turn around to face him, instead focusing in on a lurker stumbling towards them from a few feet away. The other walkers around it didn't seem to notice them just yet, either wandering around the parking lot or standing still in place. Clementine glances down at her blade and sighs. "I hate using these…" She whines.

Bill chuckles. "You can't always afford to have a weapon you like."

Clementine rolls her eyes and waits for the walker to get close before stepping to the side. The walker barrels past her and she quickly lunges at its back with her knife. Unfortunately, her short height leaves her at a disadvantage and she's unable to reach its head. Instead, she stabs it in the shoulder blade and tries to force the walker down onto the ground with a hard push. It stumbles but doesn't fall, and she backs up in fear as it turns around and reaches out to grab her.

A hammer swings into the back of its head before the walker can do so, killing it instantly. Clementine takes a moment to catch her breath as Bill easily – compared to her many previous attempts – yanks the hammer out of the lurker's skull and kicks it down onto the ground. The other walkers luckily don't react to the quiet _plop _that accompanies its fall.

"You wanna switch?" Clementine asks, embarrassed at how she had nearly failed in front of the leader of the camp.

Bill shakes his head and pats her shoulder. "Listen, Clementine… You're a smart girl. Tough as hell for your age. We can't afford to just give up when things get difficult, you know that, right?"

Clementine sighs. "Right..."

"That knife is a good weapon. It's small, easy to hide, sharp and quick. The real problem is knowing how to use it." He nods down at the deceased walker on the ground. "You almost had that under control. But, tell me, what went wrong?"

She frowns and crosses her arms. "I'm too short to reach its head. I always am… I tried to knock it down, but I guess I didn't shove it hard enough…"

He nods and thinks for a moment before gesturing at a walker nearby. "Go on, get that one. But this time, try kicking it in the knee before it can get you."

Clementine narrows her eyes at him in doubt. "Are you sure that'll work?"

When Bill nods, she decides to trust his judgment and begins to make her way over to the still walker. The walker hears her approaching and turns around to face her, its jaw covered in gore and one of its eyes popped from out of the socket and hanging along its cheek. Clementine allows it to take a few steps in her direction before kicking its knee hard with the side of her shoe. It tumbles to the floor and Clementine is quick to stab it in the back of the head.

"It worked!" She says, grinning up at Bill.

The man gives her a strong pat on the back, enough to make her stumble forward a bit. "Good work. A couple of his friends decided to join us. You up for it?"

She follows his gaze and sees a few more walkers heading in their direction. Clementine shrugs. "Sure."

Both of them get their weapons ready and even make small chat as the lurkers make their way towards them.

"I've been meaning to ask," Bill says, pausing to swing his hammer into a walker's brain. "How are you settling in?"

Clementine kicks another walker's knee in and stabs the top of its neck before answering. "This place is…better than anywhere else I've stayed in a long time, at least."

Bill huffs out a laugh. "That doesn't sound like much of a compliment."

"Well," Clementine points out. "A herd broke in during our first week. That really freaked us out."

"It ain't the first time a few of 'em have broken in. But we weren't exactly prepared for a group that huge." He admits.

"Luke told me that." Clementine says, thinking back to her conversation with the other man a few days earlier. "He has a few ideas, you know, about how to keep them out. Maybe-"

"_Luke said this, Luke said that._" Bill cuts in, sounding annoyed as he kills another lurker. "I think I know what I'm doing around here more than some farm boy does, Clementine."

"I wasn't…" Clementine backtracks, stopping herself mid-sentence to kill one of the last walkers still approaching them. "He just wants to help, Bill. We all do."

"I get it, I do. But Luke? He's just a kid." I'm_ just a kid_, Clementine thinks, but she doesn't dare say it out loud. "He's never led such a huge group of people, you see? But we've learned a lot since the incident occurred, so if such a situation ever happens again, we will be more than prepared to deal with it." He assures her.

Clementine tries to ignore the doubt stirring deep within her stomach and nods. Bill stuffs his hammer into one of his coat pockets and wipes his hands clean from whatever blood had managed to stain them. "Now, I had something else I wanted to discuss with you."

She gives him a curious look. "What is it? Is this about you moving me out? Because I actually wanted to talk to _you _about that."

"No, but go ahead." He says.

"Why'd you move me in with Carlos and Sarah? I _thought_ I was gonna be with Christa and Omid."

Bill hums. "You're friends with the girl, right? Carlos's daughter?"

Clementine rubs the back of her neck. "Well, yeah… But I wanted to be with Christa and Omid. It makes no sense, the baby's coming so soon but they're still in there." The garden center was no place to keep a baby. Luckily, with the spring coming to a close soon, the weather wasn't so bad, but babies were quick to get sick at even the slightest hint of cold. And with more recruits coming in, Christa and Omid needed a space all to themselves to raise their child, not some overcrowded hall.

"This place ain't exactly an apartment complex. And to be honest, I'm not even the one in charge of rooming. Tavia is." Tavia was definitely an important figure in camp, whether she was out looking for recruits or keeping everything up and running alongside Bill. "She tries to keep from splitting up families, but we thought that since you were friends with the girl, you wouldn't mind."

"It's…it's not that big of a deal." Clementine says, not wanting to stress Tavia and Bill out even more. "I can handle it. It was just…weird." She doesn't think about how Bill had called Christa and Omid her family.

"We're still in the process of emptying out rooms, and the expansion will add some space, but it takes time, Clementine. They'll be out of there soon." Bill finishes, his hand firm on her shoulder. Clementine nods in understanding. _And once there's enough room, I'll just ask to be transferred over to live with them, _she tells herself. "But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about."

She bites her lip. "Am I in trouble or something?" She crosses her arms over her chest. "Did Nick tell you about me putting a spider on his pillow? Because he's lying, that was _so_ Luke."

He pauses and shakes his head. "No, you're not in trouble. Though we should work on your lying skills at some point." _Dammit. _"Over this past month, I've trained you to be the best you can be. And you have gotten very far – much further than even I expected."

Clementine ducks her head at the praise, a little surprised. "I- Thank you, Bill."

"You're one of the best at killing lurkers. You're small, fast, _and_ you know just how much of a threat they are. Many of the others, they don't have the experience that you do, you understand?" He leans back against the wall and gives her an assessing look. "Which is why I want to offer you a spot in our protection force against herds."

"Like a guard?" Clementine asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Not exactly, but close. Mostly, you just guard the barricades and watch out for any lurkers in the area."

"Kinda what we're doing right now." She points out.

"When I deem you ready, you can be a guard one day." He says. "But for now, this is good practice. So. Whaddya say?"

She glances out at the parking lot, spotting a few walkers still lurking around, no thought in their minds other than when their next meal will be. It had been quiet after the herd had burst in a month ago, but such inactivity never lasted. "I hate feeling useless. When that herd broke in…when Jake got bit…" Clementine straightens her shoulders and nods. "I wanna help."

Bill smiles at her in approval. "I was hoping you would say that. The only condition is that you have to have an adult with you at all times out here."

She groans. "I can handle myself." To prove her point, she flips open her switchblade and stomps over to a lurker crawling around on the ground, stabbing it in the head before it can get any closer.

Bill claps his hands together at her display. "You can, but it's just a precaution."

She sighs but shrugs her shoulders in acceptance. "Just don't pair me up with Troy, please?"

"I'll keep that in mind." He says, right as his walkie-talkie goes off and someone male begins to speak through the static.

"_You there, Bill?" _

He slips the radio from out of his coat pocket and presses down on the red button on the side. "Stan? What is it?"

Stan was the camp's mechanic, though Clementine had only seen the man a few times. Carmela knew him more personally, since she often worked alongside him on the camp's cars and trucks. _"Something's up with the truck. I think I know what's the deal, but we don't have the right parts here." _

"Shit…" Bill mumbles, rubbing his temples as if to ward off a headache. "I'll figure it out. Been meaning to go on a supply run, anyway." He glances down at Clementine and takes his finger off the button to tell her, "Go on. Lesson's dismissed."

"Thank you," she says quickly before stepping back inside within the relative safety of the camp. She couldn't help but feel bad for Bill. Nowadays, he always seemed to be stressed out by something or the other.

Reggie waves at her as she walks by, and she returns the gesture warmly. _Maybe now would be a good time to visit Luke and Nick_, she thinks as she opens the door leading to the inside of the hardware store. _They're always up to something._

* * *

**(Author's note: **Yay, I think I managed to stick within my "once-a-week updates" rule! Can't wait until episode 5 is released. I'll be playing the episode a little later, so hopefully that will give me some time to write the next chapter while I'm avoiding all of my social networks. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!)


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Walking Dead, Angst, Friendship